Sovereign

"Once more, one may ask, 'What indeed is men's duty?' The Queen once again called upon us! And once more, we young men answered her calls! For her, we shall pick up our rifles and hold the line till our deaths. The question is, will she and women answer our calls for equality after this? Such uncertainty! But brothers - report now to the nearest recruitment centers, and hold the line against these radicals! Remember, in our fight for rights, we shall never infringe on women's rights, and instead protect theirs. That is men's duty!"

- Liberty One Radio

+++

T-they named this unit after me?

Amelie smiled awkwardly as she met the troops, operators, mechanics, and staff of the newly formed 4th SAM Battalion 'Amelie' as it was called.

After days of grueling retraining and reorganization, alongside the hasty repairs and outfitting of the Archer SAM systems that she had bought, William organized all of them into one Battalion.

The 4th SAM Battalion, similar to the 18th SAM Battalion that held the Halian air space for days, was organized around 6 line batteries, all of which contained nearly a dozen vehicles each from the actual launchers themselves and the complementary systems that allowed them to operate.

It was an extremely expensive system, paid in full by her own personal money. Quite frankly, she didn't need to do such a thing, but Amelie didn't have much to do with the hundreds of billions of money that she had anyway.

And, thus was the result. She bought an entire Battalion of SAM systems herself. A Battalion now named after her by William.

But I just paid for it? Plus, he told me it's outdated anyway…wait. William!

"Now, I see that you're quite proud of the result of your sudden expense," William said as he guided her through the building where they were gathered before deployment.

I'm evidently not. Why did you have to name it after me? But…I suppose I'm proud of these men. To serve with outdated weapons just for this city…

"But that's why I named them after you. You did, after all, buy their weapons."

"Are you sure this is wise? Won't they think I'm being too…arrogant?"

"Amelie, you have to understand. There's a certain sense of honor and pride in serving the Queen, even for men. How best could that be harnessed, than to motivate them further to fight by naming their unit after you?"

The lines of men had finally fully formed when she reached the makeshift podium, William closely behind her. The microphones that faced her made it clear that they were awaiting her speech.

As William had said, this unit was sponsored by her. Thus, she was a bit of their unofficial leader, even though an Army officer was now in charge of them.

How strange, to actually 'lead' a military formation. What do I even say?

"Citizens…" She quickly corrected herself. "Soldiers…all of you today stand before me. After mere days of training and preparations, after you have all volunteered to join this new formation, you are now here. Ready to defend the very heart of our Kingdom."

The men looked up at her. Some with pride, some with disdain, but most held a neutral, uncaring facade. As if they were here for other reasons. Or as if they didn't truly believe in her and the Crown.

But Amelie wanted them to believe. Perhaps it would help. Perhaps it would not.

But how can one fight without believing their very Queen?

"That's why, I believe all of you good men, have great honor in your hearts. That regardless of my failures, of the failures of our government…of us women…you are still here. Loyal to defend your homeland till the end. That's why, I extend to all of you my eternal gratitude for your service. May the Goddess be with all of you."

There were no cheers, nor were there many reactions. But the most that she could make it was the Army officer in the middle - he who was in charge of this formation. He nodded at her.

"We shall not fall short of Her Majesty's expectations. Right men?!

And a chorus of loud and quick affirmations returned, just as the officer saluted her.

Amelie, presented with such an awkward situation, didn't quite know what her next course of action would be. He had just saluted her, which meant that she probably had to return it now.

But she didn't know how.

Still, even in such a clumsy and obviously 'civilian' manner, she saluted him back.

She could only hope that it returned her desired effect.

…

"They took the Tor Bridge." Kleist declared as he zoomed into the map on the screens

"Well, that definitely is bad news," William remarked grimly.

Once more, Amelie found herself being briefed in the Situation Room of the "Queen's Bunker". It seemed that the situation in the frontlines had further deteriorated, with the Putschists finally crossing the Ludendorf River west and closing in on the City of Heiflitz down south.

The Ludendorf River itself ran southward on the western side of Halia, before turning eastward to the coast south of Halia, which was why Heiflitz was on the other southern bank of the Ludendorf River.

With the western crossing now captured, all the Putschists would need was to capture Heiflitz, and Halia would be nearly surrounded. In such a situation, Amelie could clearly see that the capital would only have a land connection to Rebenslof up north and the rest of the Free Confederation.

The bad news - they would be cut off from the rest of Orland. Both Southern Orland and the Orlish West Coast on the other side of the Opellian Continent were still under the banner of the Kingdom, but with both the Grand Duchy (the political center of her Kingdom) and the Free Confederation (the economic center of her Kingdom) and the rest of Northeastern Orland cut off from the rest…

They were facing an utter strategic nightmare. So much so that General Albrecht had organized the City of Eutstadt in West Orland as a new de facto capital where members of the Orlish Government were being evacuated.

But with it being half a continent away, Eutstadt was currently staffed by the Orlish High Command, which meant that outside of the Archduchy of Löt and the Duchy of Oldrach (which was still under the control of Dubois and Flandere), the rest of West Orland and Southern Orland was now under the effective control of the Armed Forces.

But, it wasn't like she had a choice. The Armed Forces were now effectively at the helm of the Kingdom, regardless of what she did.

It would indeed be a problem later, but for now, she focused on the developing problem before her. That being the tightening noose around Halia, which she needed to address.

"Didn't we place more troops near the bridge?" Asked Amelie. Now, while it was indeed bad news that they had made a river crossing, she wondered if they could somehow launch a counter-attack anyway while their supply lines over the bridgehead weren't established yet.

While she was no military tactician, somehow, she knew that there would be no way for them to sustain their troops on the other side of the Ludendorf River.

"Yes, indeed. The 5th and 7th Regiments held these towns for days, and were reinforced by the 13th, 15th, and 65th Mechanized Brigades for the past six days."

He pointed at three points in the Ludendorf River on the screen with his baton that he always carried.

"But, several pontoon bridges were established over the course of the battle. We were unable to prevent these crossings due to a lack of air superiority, and constant air strikes forced us back away from the river into these towns. In other words, they have breached our first defense line in the west."

"That's…"

A disaster!

"No worries. These four towns have been well fortified for the past few days. Elements of the 2nd Light Mech Division had also arrived to reinforce the second defense perimeter. We also have at least three armored divisions arriving from Rebenslof soon. Especially the 1st Armored Division 'Zeitgeist'. An elite formation from the Liebnich Front during the Great War."

Well, indeed, that did sound…slightly reassuring to Amelie. And, the 2nd Light Mech Division…she did notice those intimidating spider-like mechs move through Halia's roads whenever the air strikes stopped.

Well, the same was quite true for most units. Whenever there was no plane or missile in the sky, convoy after convoy of armored vehicles, trucks, and military cars would pop up and rush west to the frontlines.

"I see then. What of the Air Force? Did the Chief Air Marshal report anything? We really need his fighters above Halia now."

And with that, Kleist sighed and turned to William, as he relinquished the presentation back to him.

"Unfortunately, I've talked with the Chief Air Marshal and General Albrecht, and…their last air offensive from the south failed."

"What?"

"They didn't break through. Approximately 47 Loyalist aircraft were decimated in the last few days. The Chief Air Marshal is currently reorganizing for another attempt, but that would take time."

He walked closely to the screens and tapped a few things in the control panels, which widened the frontline map from merely showing the Grand Duchy of Ludendorf to showing the rest of the Orlish East Coast.

Unlike the previous days, it seemed that the areas controlled by the Putschists edged ever so close to the coast, and it seemed clearly obvious that they were trying to cut Northeastern Orland from the rest of the Kingdom.

"Without air superiority in these areas, High Command fears that the units defending this ever-thinning strip of territory would find their positions untenable. Currently, around 150,000 troops are stationed here, facing almost 300,000 Putschists. We expect that a retreat would soon be inevitable."

"That would be unacceptable! Is there really nothing that we could do to prevent us from being cut off?"

"The Orlish High Command is trying, Amelie, but there's only so much that we can do when we're caught in surprise. Quite frankly, it's impressive that we even managed to field millions on all fronts not even a week since this blasted civil war started."

With that, Colonel Kleist walked straight toward William and pressed a button to close the screens. What replaced the electronic maps on every screen was the mere royal coat of arms of Orland on a black background.

"And that about concludes this presentation, Your Majesty," Kleist said with one last nod to her.

Goddess…this is beyond bad.

…

"So, we are still lacking in medical supplies?"

"Trucks and trains from Rebenslof unloaded a lot yesterday, but half of it was bombed while being transported."

"That's such a-"

The sudden wails of the air raid sirens forced William to stop his SUV on the side of the road. Amelie naturally froze in response while he pulled out his radio.

Indeed, just moments after the briefing in her bunker, the two immediately embarked straight toward the MoH (Ministry of Health) Building.

But now, it seemed that their little adventure would be interrupted violently.

"Amelie! Get out of the car. Those planes are coming in this direction!"

"They what?!"

Hastily, William unbuckled his and her seatbelts as he quickly forced her out of the car. Amelie found her own arms grabbed by his once they were outside, as they ran toward an empty firing position with sandbags on the side of the road.

"Get down, now!"

"William!"

"Just get down!"

She complied, as she buried herself into the road, which she naturally revulsed.

She watched as William furiously talked to his radio, and suddenly, loud swishes pulled her eyes off him and straight into the square right in the middle of the intersection.

Over there, what appeared to be eight Regal SAM launchers were aflame as they launched missile after missile into the skies.

Suddenly, she screamed. Screamed as it all fell down near her. Screamed as she faced the terror of war so closely this time.

Screamed as the SAM systems were struck by a massive explosion.