Sovereign

“Heavy casualties! Another military disaster stuck the OAF after a failed counter-offensive in the Ludendorf Front to dislodge Putschist forces assaulting the Royal Capital. Reports and images of battlefields littered with the wrecks of armored units, dead young soldiers, and downed aircraft flooded wildly over the course of three days. In response, the Royal Guard has vowed to take more ‘active measures’ in the wake of the OAF’s failure to fight the Putschists in the fields. But it remains to be seen if the Royal Guard of Orland will deliver any sort of positive development for our Kingdom.”

- ROCN News

+++

4th Knights Detachment

Royalist Frontlines

It was a nightmare.

Truthfully, the brutal sights of war had been something akin to an alien environment for this RGO unit - the 4th Knights Detachment. Tasked with securing a town that overlooked the Putshist 8th Republican Corps’ eastern flank, whatever vaunted tales of glory and easy targets seemed amiss for this all-ladies group.

“Dame Truben!!” Shouted one of the younger Knights, as she staggered toward the position of one of her superiors, her Arcano-Rifle held tightly in her hands. She dropped near her, and she instinctively found it disgusting that the mud stained her combat uniform. “We saw an opening to their left.”

The older woman, who held a binocular as she watched the enemy, didn’t turn back. But she replied.

“I see. Elaborate.”

“They seem to be lacking any machine gun emplacements on the eastern approach, near one of the roads toward the town. If we sent a concentrated assault there.”

“We can break through.”

“Exactly! It’s a great shame to be bogged down in this muddy hellhole, Dame Truben. Any further of this and our honor would be greatly affected. We need to secure that town immediately.”

Indeed, this was one of the first RGO operations on the frontline. Dame Truben, in charge of the detachment, didn’t exactly like the mission given to her unit. She knew well that her “Knights” were just elite guards. Guards that only guarded the nobility and the royal family. While they were battlemages, the age of magic in the conventional battlefield had long been over.

They only had small arms, their magic, and a few other fancy arcane contraptions like their portable Aoubious Heavy Artillery - which had been pounding the town for hours already. Their artillery lobbed powerful shells enchanted to freeze everything in its radius in an ice storm, but it didn’t have the volume of fire that she desired.

They barely even suppressed the enemy. Sure, they may have killed many rebels, but she could tell that they merely replaced those losses just as easily. And worse still, her superiors were too prideful to authorize “barbaric artillery support” for her. Why? She and her unit had magic. It was impossible for them not to break through.

The only good news was that the Putschist’s small arms were ineffective against her Knigths. And their spells had already decimated a platoon of enemy armor. But unless they could muster the volume of firepower that a battalion of OAF troops could unleash, she doubted her chances of actually pushing forward.

Unless we go all in and exhaust everything.

Which would not make do, because if they wanted to use their most powerful spells in this engagement, they would most likely all drop before the day was over. And then the OAF would have to come in and evacuate them. That would be too much shame.

Though, that could probably work if they eliminated the enemy fast enough. They certainly could do that, but she knew enough from her brother to know that warfare wasn’t all about decimating the enemy. They had to actually have the capacity to hold out from counter-attacks and hold any captured territory afterward.

Hah, but the Queen is watching. And the Archduchess wanted this. I have no choice.

“Then we shall do it. I want all of our Knight Platoons to converge there and execute an Altay Maneuver on our assault.”

The Altay Maneuver, named after the Battle of Altay during the Arcane Wars, was a doctrinal tactic developed by the Royal Guard for these kinds of engagements. It involved a squad of spellcasters intentionally blinding the defenders with bright flashes of light before fast-moving Knights assaulted (with shields on) surgically determined hostile units and dispatched them quickly with whatever magic would best suit said target.

Theoretically, it would disorient the enemy first, then create holes in their defense lines that could be exploited easily by the extremely fast-moving mages of the Royal Guard, and cause heavy morale loss on the enemy’s frontline troops, and with the holes in their defense, they would find themselves encircled by powerful knights (who they had no chance of fighting one-on-one) and be eliminated. It was akin to a mini blitzkrieg that the OAF seemed to love to do with their armored units.

The only problem was its mana consumption. Her Knights would definitely be dry by the end of the day. And this was why Dame Truben didn’t like this mission. Her forces were special forces, meant to be deployed in limited numbers in high-priority missions that didn’t require extreme staying capabilities. Not some hours-long heavy combat that demanded continuous mana usage.

Hopefully, the OAF units behind me would not mind picking up our slack once this town is ours.

“I shall relay the plans then.”

“Good. Now go.”

+++

Queen’s Bunker

Situation Room

Operation Paragon, a confidential operation that Amelie signed off yesterday after the Archduchess’ demands, was now ongoing. Truthfully, Amelie expected that the 4th Knights Detachment would win a quick and easy victory at capturing the town, and she was already half expecting that she would have to prepare a long-winded argument as to why the Archduchess should still not be in charge of the battle…

But to her horror, the 4th Knights Detachment’s first assault didn’t go well earlier.

Luckily, casualties were light, and the Putschist suffered heavy losses of what could be upwards of a hundred, while they only traded eight Royal Guard Knights in the first scuffle (and thus created an absurd kill-to-death ratio), they still failed to punch through and break the enemy.

Now, the 4th was preparing once more for another assault.

That’s still eight good women dead for a stupid power grab. Goddess, this should be called off. But still…

And she really wanted to call it off now. But somehow, at the same time, an irking wounded pride appeared out of nowhere in her heart. How dare those rebels actually repel an assault of her Knights? There was no way. It was illogical, but her pride as a woman was just as wounded by that tiny defeat, mainly because she witnessed it in real-time. So much so that her rational mind that demanded ‘peace above all’ and ‘less bloodshed’ was silenced by her burning desire to get back at them.

Somehow, she fell into the same sunken cost fallacy that the Archduchess found herself in at the moment. They both had to prove to William and Colonel Kleist that women could fight this war too.

Plus, if this worked, she would have a new excuse to get more women on the frontlines and reduce the casualties that men suffered. Technically, if this succeeded, it would be good news. It had already been a century since women fought a proper war after all. They had all gone rusty and allowed men to take most roles of the battlefield, and that was one of the main reasons that they had no defenses when men rebelled.

And so, Amelie had to do this.

I mean, surely we can! They killed ten Putschists for one Knight. The ratio speaks for itself!

“Your Majesty, I assure you, that was just a fluke. Had they not bought those IFV reinforcements out of nowhere, our Knights would have secured that flank.”

And her mouth moved in lightspeed, agreeing like some automated response would.

“Yes, indeed. But still, we took some casualties.”

“Those fine women will be granted full honors. They served the Kingdom well.”

Behind the two, William felt an overwhelming urge to bash the heads of the two aristocrats already. He expected better than Amelie, but unfortunately, her prideful self manifested too fast for her to control. Of course, he kept himself standing straight, eyes already twitching in annoyance at how Amelie actually approved and continued to approve this operation, which risked his position!

Still, even he could not deny the sheer power that the 4th Knights Detachment dished out in quick succession. They almost massacred the Putschists stationed in the town, until their armor and artillery support (which in their desperation, also attacked their own units) arrived. In fact, six out of the eight Knights that died were a result of the Putschists’ artillery strike (which also killed more than a dozen of the Putschists due to how “danger close” it was.)

But he didn’t want to lose command of JTF-Ludendorf! Not to mention, the RGO was too small to affect the course of battle outside of these little engagements. While this was happening, the apocalyptic skirmishes near the town of Reilow were still ongoing, where entire battalions were being decimated every hour in the back-and-forth assaults of his troops and the enemy.

That was where they should be focused on! He needed the RGO for other things, like small unit actions, assassinations, reconnaissance, and special tasks that required fast, powerful, small groups. Essentially, he wanted the RGO as a special forces unit, which they already were, rather than use them as some sort of battering ram on the battlefield. He had tanks and mechs for that!

“I still petition for this operation to be canceled.”

“William, please, just lay down the doubts for a while,” Amelie replied, truly sure for herself. “I’m sure the Royal Guard can pull this off.”

“I know they can, but is this worth it? The 162nd Infantry Battalion is already on standby and ready to assault the town. And our artillery batteries are ready-”

“Major, will you please cease yourself? My Knights do not need OAF support yet. The entire point of this operation is to prove our battlefield capabilities. Finding held from the OAF is antithetical to that.”

William frowned at the Archduchess, and Colonel Kleist seemed appalled by her words. This was nothing but a tactical and strategic inefficiency, born out of meaningless interservice rivalry. He could scarcely believe that such nonsense was coming from the head of the Ministry of Defense and the Royal Guard.

He truly feared that she somehow got into Amelie’s ears so quickly.

“You already proved it, alright. It’s not like we ever denied the fact that a single Royal Guard Knight is not ten times superior to a humble Army rifleman, but this is absurd!”

“You never denied it, yes. However, the OAF had always claimed itself to be superior at pitched battles. At ‘true battles’ as you put it. I intend to dismantle that notion.”

“Look, is there really any point in denying the fact that the Royal Guard was never designed for attritional warfare? There’s only a hundred thousand of you. Most of them are busy with internal security too. We however number in the millions-”

“More doesn’t mean better, Major. Being able to throw more bodies to the meatgrinder does not make you men superior. In fact, I pity you all greatly for thinking that’s such an achievement.”

“Don’t you dare insult our sacrifices that way, Your Grace.”

“Oh, did I strike a nerve?

Amelie herself watched the back in forth and frowned in annoyance at the Archduchess’ way of putting it. Sure, men found pride in being able to fight conventional warfare. But the way she said it…almost made it seem like they were just throwing themselves to die and becoming proud of it.

Though, it’s kinda accurate. But Amelie shot down those thoughts.

“Let’s cease this silly bickering already.” Amelie declared. “The RGO has proven themselves well, and thus, I approve a minor reshuffling of JTF-Ludendorf as a compromise. Archduchess, you will not be in charge of all RGO operations in the Grand Duchy, but you will be subordinate to Major Porter. Is that clear?”

William seemed genuinely furious.

“What? I have to work with her?”

“Oh, shut it. I’m the one supposed to be complaining here. You’ve been in charge of my Knights for too long. It is only right that said mistake is being reversed by our benevolent Queen.”

I’m really sorry, William. But we need her. And I…I really want to give the RGO more participation in this war.

“You will both have to work with each other.”

“I’m fine with this if the Royal Guard will act in support of the OAF.”

“I raise no issue with that. I intend for women to join this war as well anyway. This is a war for both of us, and both of us must work together to achieve victory. I see here that we women have merits in the battlefield, and demerits as well. But so are men. I believe we must cover both of our strengths and weaknesses together this time.” Amelie smiled at the two, as she was sure that this should appease them somewhat. “Will you two work together?”

Reluctantly, William sighed as he nodded.

“Alright, fine.”

“I shall work with him for you, Your Majesty.”

“But first things first, I want this operation to be truly joint. William, execute your earlier suggestion. The 162nd will fight side by side with the 4th.”