Assisting the retreating forces was the Strike Package’s primary objective. This meant that using high-explosive rounds might produce rubble that could block their path. And so…
“—Commence operation.”
The Reginleifs stormed in, swiftly gaining control over each block. The moment Shin declared the beginning of the operation, their power packs let out a high-pitched screech, which was the first blow. A ten-tonne machine moving at hundreds of kilometers per hour required considerable output. The loud roar of armored weapons deafened the ears and shook one’s stomach, and that alone was intimidating enough to force a timid soldier to yield.
And most of the Republic insurgents weren’t soldiers, but complete amateurs.
With his monitor zoomed in, Shin could see the figures hidden behind the barricades stumble back. As Undertaker and his platoon closed in on them with a swift, headlong charge, the insurgents chickened out and began to flee.
The Reginleifs moved faster than an armored weapon usually would, but the troops they spotted carried assault rifles and portable anti-tank recoilless guns. Neither had the firepower to damage a Reginleif head-on.
But even so, a few of the insurgents stuck the barrels of their assault rifles over the barricades…only for most of their guns to remain silent. They’d either forgotten to load the first round or neglected to undo the safety… Common mistakes for amateurs who thought shooting a gun only involved pulling the trigger, and fresh conscripts who weren’t used to handling automatics.
Undertaker, which led the platoon’s wedge formation, reached the barricade. The insurgents likely believed they’d set the barricade up firmly, but it went flying with all the brittleness of a paper cutout. As the people behind it scrambled to get out of his way, Shin turned Undertaker around.
Between the Reginleif lording over them, taller and more intimidating than any tiger, and having to hear the roar of its power pack from up close, the people finally started fleeing in earnest, bumping into one another and falling over. He hoped to avoid a stampede, but the chaos had its advantages.
Having them flee into the streets would have made things tricky. Three units from other platoons fired their wire anchors. Tachina’s and Matori’s units used the buildings on the side of the road as footing to swoop over the crowd’s heads and block their path, while Sashiba’s unit climbed up to a building’s rooftop and fixed its smoothbore gun on the insurgents to keep them in check.
Sashiba, now positioned above them, ordered through the external speaker at full volume for the insurgents to get on their knees and put their hands behind their heads.
Seizing the insurgents was, as it turned out, all too easy.
“Infantry forces, recover the surrendering insurgents.”
The female troops conscripted from the Vargus moved in to arrest them.
✦ ✦ ✦
This was all according to predictions, but the insurgents in every city proved unable to resist the Reginleifs moving in. All that remained for the child soldiers was to go about this without having to dirty their hands. After ordering the standby military police who had joined them to move in, Grethe turned around.
“—Aide control staff, you can step down now. You’re worried about President Zimmerman, right?”
She turned to Frederica, who looked more anxious about things elsewhere. She couldn’t have her stay in the command post in this condition, and Grethe knew she couldn’t tell a child concerned about her family to not worry.
“I think you’re better off not watching what’s going to go down there, but if you feel like you have to, do what you must. If you want to tell the task force what the situation inside is like before they move in, that could be helpful.”
Frederica looked at her in surprise. The Strike Package, being a combat unit, had a different chain of command from the forces affiliated with the training base on the home front. This meant Grethe wasn’t in a position to directly issue him orders, but—
“I can contact his base to ask Second Lieutenant Rikka to have a RAID Device on.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The hundreds of thousands of the front’s soldiers continued their retreat. With the logistical support having fully withdrawn, the requisitioned Vargus conscripts deployed to Harutari. The combat units moved into the areas vacated by the logistical support units and began their march as well.
Fundamentally, the army’s march and retreat both progressed rapidly, with multiple units supporting one another as they moved. A minimal number of units was left behind on the front lines to fight off the Legion before progressing under covering fire from the second fortification line.
However.
✦ ✦ ✦
The armored infantryman Vyov abandoned his position with his comrades and fled the deadly battlefield. But as he fled, he heard an unbelievable order.
The second northern front’s army was to retreat.
In other words, they were running. All of them, the noble generals, the Vargus troops, the Fleet Countries’ volunteer troops. They were going to retreat and do nothing to defend or save Vyov’s homeland.
They’re all abandoning our city!
Hiding in the Neikuwa hills with countless other renegade soldiers, Vyov bit his lips in frustration. They were traitors after all. This was why he abandoned them and ran.
But then a force of Löwe swarmed into this valley full of traitors, directed by the Rabe that had detected this spot full of enemies. They didn’t even need to fire any weapons. Using their fifty-tonne bodies, they trampled both infantry and armored infantry alike.
Vyov and his comrades tried to flee, but the narrow terrain of the valley made them get in one another’s way.
“Wh-where’s the armored division?! They can defeat Löwe!”
Vánagandrs were the type of unit meant for defeating Löwe, after all, and with the Legion having intruded so deep in, the armored unit relegated for mobile defense was supposed to engage them.
“Why aren’t they coming to help us…?! Those u—”
But before he could shout the word useless, a metallic leg crushed Vyov alive.
✦ ✦ ✦
Despite many calls for support coming from the breakthrough point, Gilwiese and the Myrmecoleo Free Regiment couldn’t move from their position. The fleeing soldiers’ panic only seemed to increase as time went by, but no matter how much Gilwiese and co. shouted at them to get out of the way, they didn’t listen.
Of course, Gilwiese and his regiment couldn’t stomp over them, so they could only remain seated inside their cinnabar-colored Vánagandrs, their frustration building. It was then that a Para-RAID call came in from the archduchy’s ace division Flame Leopard, who were preparing to deploy.
“Still cheating death, mutt?”
Both the contents and the tone of the call were awful, but the one speaking was a colonel who was relatively friendly toward the Myrmecoleo Free Regiment, as members of the Brantolote archduchy went. Normally, Gilwiese would have laughed it off, but he wasn’t in the mood, so he replied curtly.
“Sad to inform we’re all still alive, Colonel. The deserters are getting in our way, so we can’t deploy.”
“I’m aware. So I’m calling to tell you there’s no need for backup anymore. Prepare to retreat.”
This left Gilwiese surprised. Behind him, he could hear Svenja, who’d been cowering silently so far, hold her breath. He knew a retreat order was issued across the front, but falling back to the second defensive line without waiting for the first line’s infantry to retreat? Even if they were on the brink of complete collapse, they were going to abandon the first line while there were still soldiers fighting there, without even offering any covering fire for their retreat?
“Colonel, sir, that would…that would make the infantrymen’s morale completely plummet. We’ll have even more desertions if we do that.”
“I’d imagine so. But we have no choice anymore. I repeat, Major. Retreat. We’re abandoning the cannon fodder.”