Sovereign

“For three hundred years, we have battled them and bled for our rights. For three hundred years, we had been beaten and crushed. Every inch forward met with the brutal magic of our masters. Today is no different. The payment for our rights will be a toll towering above us. For we are only privileged to receive either a pyrrhic victory - or total annihilation.”

- General Oswald Kluge

+++

July 7, 2024

12th Armored Division ‘Trident’

8th Republican Army Corps

Putschist Frontlines

General Oswald Kluge, the man in charge of the original spearhead of the Putschist assault during the June Coup, now found himself in charge of the 8th Republican Army Corps after their failure to secure the capital.

In the distance, the skies once more turned bright, as the Royalists began another artillery barrage. The lights of the falling missiles, shells, and their detonations created a distant orchestra of death and demise.

Which prompted a smirk in the face of Oswald.

He lowered his binoculars and spoke to the man beside him.

“Arthur.”

“Uncle, are they really sure about this?”

“About as sure as they should be. Now give them the signal.”

Lieutenant General Arthur Kluge, second in command to Oswald, and his very nephew, took the radio from their radio operator.

“Fire Battery One, Four, Five, Eight, Fourteen, and Twenty, commence bombardment on affected grids. Fire Battery One, Six, and Seven commence counter-battery operations.”

The bombardment from the Putschists began. On the western bank of the Ludendorf River, dozens of field artillery batteries opened fire together. Alongside them, lined upon lines of Self-Propelled Artillery units opened fire high at the sky as well, again and again.

And then behind them, parked RFRS (Rapid Fire Rocket Systems), massive rocket launchers mounted on the chassis of the M8 IFVs, unleashed their fire at the skies and sent hundreds after hundreds of missiles in the direction of the frontline.

The distant booms that lit up the frontlines could be seen clearly by General Oswald Kluge, as he kept his binoculars out, and watched the destruction in front of him.

Their forces, for the last days since the Orlish counter-attack, had been forced back one after another from their forward positions. Casualties had been sky-high, as the Royalist armored forces and heavy artillery decimated dozens of brigades in short order.

And they pushed deep, straight to the towns of Lofbeck in the south, and Rostfurt and Reilow up north. More critical was their push to Rostfurt, as it was close to the town of Tor, where the Tor Bridge, their main line of supply to the eastern bank of the Ludendorf River, was present.

Reilow was also important, as a road passed through it from their northern incursions to the Free Confederation. While there weren’t many supplies that passed through Reilow, it would still be an unfortunate loss if captured by the Royalists.

Already, the Royalists took the town of Richt, which was merely five kilometers away from Reilow. The battered brigades of the 21st and 17th Infantry Divisions delayed their advance by two days, mainly with their local counterattacks as they stubbornly exchanged hands with the Royalitsts over Richt.

But now, two days into the Royalist counteroffensive, the Putschist leadership had devised their direct response. The immediate resumption of their offensive.

Do not retreat in battle. Instead, face them head-on.

That was General Heindhöff’s words himself. And there were a lot of merits with his command. They had already been building up for a second push to the capital itself. While the Royalist assault threw their plans off-balance, it didn’t change the fact that the preparations had been made and were being made.

Much of the units hit by their counteroffensive were frontline units that were never planned to be a part of their main offensive. They were there to man the front, and they had served their role well, as he, and the 8th Republican Army Corps, the spearhead of the planned Putschist counterattack, were untouched.

“Seems like we’re hitting them real good,” Oswald said to his nephew, who nodded in agreement.

“Yes, this saturation barrage should soften them up.”

“Would have preferred a more precise approach, but I suppose they’ve been on the move for a while. Would have required a lot more recon to do so.”

“Still, that’s so much munitions that we sent. That could have lasted a week or so, but we used it all up in one go.”

“No worries. The supplies from Eirhow are endless. We’re not like them who have to conserve, we can pummel them with everything that we have. And…warfare is all about terrifying the enemy army to back down.”

Oswald looked back at Arthur.

“And don’t you think lighting up the entire frontline is quite terrifying?”

+++

Near Reilow

14th Light Mech Division ‘Wachsam’

182nd Mechanized Brigade

Gamma Company

Royalist Frontlines

<>

<>

<<3rd Regiment is backing down! We took too many losses!>>

<>

<<25th Battalion is decimated by enemy artillery! We have to retreat!>>

The frontline was shattered. It seemed almost hell, as fires burned the wrecks of what once were the armored formations of the 14th Light Mech Division. LSS Mechs, Löwe tanks, M3 APCs, and M8 IFVs littered the crater-filled no man’s land, as troops of all kinds tried desperately to disembark or to rescue the wounded.

Beside them, the occasional surviving armored units seemed to be firing back with desperation at the Putschist lines, while HMLVs and other infantry continued their advance.

Behind a burning LSS Mech, a group of HMLVs was parked near the HMLV of the Captain of Gamma Company. He was conversing with his radio as the sound of fifty-caliber gunfire filled his ears.

“I NEEDED THAT DAMNED FIRE SUPPORT YESTERDAY!”

“Negative, Captain. We cannot prioritize you for now. You will have to wait till-”

He placed down his radio as he looked back at the front lines. Most of his men had dismounted and taken cover in the wreckages of their armored formations, or in the hundreds of craters that littered the battlefield.

Their HMLVs however continued their machine gun fire, thus they were still unleashing a significant volume of fire on their target. He however did not duck or hide from the rain of bullets around him, instead, he walked straight, slowly, calmly, and methodolically as gunfire rained all around him.

Almost as if nothing could touch him.

Of course, it was all for show. He didn’t want his men to lose further morale, so he refused to hide like a rat. Plus, Orlish officers never ducked. That was tradition. He approached one of his Lieutenants, who did much the same, as he directed two HMLVs to fire their guns at a certain building up ahead.

“Lieutenant!”

He faced him but didn’t bother to salute. It was the battlefield after all. Still, he respectfully nodded.

“Yes, Captain?”

“I want you to move 3rd and 4th platoon straight on those gun emplacements. Use our remaining HMLVs and M8s to do a quick assault run, and follow them up with infantry.”

“Sir, are you sure? There’s a possibility that we would have to abort this assault anyway.”

“Until that happens, the objectives assigned to us are clear. They want that gas station, we’ll get them that damned gas station. Understood?”

The Lieutenant nodded. Soon, the orders were dispersed in company-wide comms, and each platoon and their supporting vehicles lined up for the attack run. First, the HMLVs advanced, their speed allowing them to quickly reach the Putschist lines within moments as their fifty-caliber machine guns opened fire.

Behind them, M8 IFVs advanced, their twenty-millimeter guns hot as they fired straight at the Putschists, who cowered under their foxholes and cover. Yet that didn’t deter them from firing back. Their positions responded both with machine gun fire and rifle fire, and an anti-tank missile flew straight into one of Gamma Company’s M8 IFV, sending its turret straight into the sky.

“Push forward!”

One after another, the infantry squads of Gamma Company advanced forward, as some of them lay down at the craters to provide fire support. This further suppressed the Putschists, and lowered their volume of fire, allowing more squads of Gamma Company to press forward through the maelstrom.

But men were dropping, one after another, some even entire squads, they filled the approach with their bodies. One HMLV was hit by another anti-tank rocket, and it stopped just in front of the gas station. But the troops of Gamma Company finally reached the Putschist line - and began one of the worst parts of the war - close-quarters combat.

+++

12th Armored Division ‘Trident’

8th Republican Army Corps

Putschist Frontlines

General Oswald Kluge took note of the reports before him. The earlier artillery barrage didn’t seem to stop the Royalists. While they were momentarily winded by it, they seemed to have continued on their assault.

Not that he expected them to stop - no, he would never expect that. Royalists, Putschists, all of them were men. Men who were hardened by the Great War. This style of warfare, one where both sides threw their forces at each other, and their lives, like nothing, was something too familiar to every man of the Orlish Armed Forces.

No, they didn’t falter, and while that greatly disappointed the General, he accepted it. His respect for the Royalists wasn’t misplaced. While they had chosen the wrong side, they were still the same men he served with in the Great War.

Prepared to fight through hell, with guts that never faltered.

Truly, a worthy opponent. But the time for games was over. It was time for the assault.

Almost one-thousand-five hundred armored units were prepared in two army corps by the General. Alongside that were nearly two hundred thousand soldiers prepared to follow closely behind and grind through the defensive lines that the Royalists erected in front of Halia.

And behind them, thousands of artillery pieces, self-propelled guns, RFRS platforms, and the Republican Air Force stood ready to support every advance they took. It would be another great offensive, an offensive unseen after the end of the Great War when General Victor Albrecht famously sent millions of men to death in a months-long advance.

General Victor Albrecht, now the overall commander of the Royalist forces, oh, it sent a chill on his spine. How fitting, it was as if he was fighting a giant himself.

Although of course, he recognized that it wasn’t exactly the great General that he was fighting, as their intel showed that it was Amelie’s guard, Major William Porter, and Her Majesty herself who was in charge of the defense of the capital, it still made him feel better, that he was fighting someone great.

For he recognized William’s brilliance! The man may be a traitor to men’s cause and a mere pup of Her Majesty, but he held the city from their attacks like no other. No matter how many assaults they launched, no matter how much pummeling they gave the city with air and artillery strikes, and even when they tried to strangle it off from supplies, the Major and JTF-Ludendorf survived.

Oswald imagined, that if he was in the position of William, the fight must have been truly glorious. A true last stand for an old order. A last stand for the deranged goddess and the system that women worshipped.

And General Kluge wanted it that way. This must be the last stand of the Queen. Of the old rotting system. Of the goddess. Of magic. If he could take the Royal Capital, even when it would be nothing but a city of rubble and ruin, men would have their greatest symbolic victory.

A victory, where the oppressed, where the battered, where the disposable rats, where the second rate, took the crown jewel of the matriarchy.

Halia.

He took his radio and spoke to it.

“All operational commanders, ready your men. We shall write history once more. Operation Hammer Down begins. Onwards!”