Chapter 10: Volume (RE) Chapter 10: Stronghold of Nantes
(AU: I feel so dead posting this. My finals, SAT next week. Last week was supposed to be the last one but noooooo. I feel actually sick, this sucks. I will try to keep a decent posting, no guarantees.)
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It was early morning the next day and the marshal Gerald sat in on a rug on the ground inside his main tent in their camp. His generals were all boisterous and proud, so proud that they have let their guard down and partied all night.
The not the marshal. He was very nervous.
Despite the huge wall there was no activity to communicate or attack them from the other side. Usually when the Empire of Kursk would fight they would send a flood of monsters to weaken them first. This has not happened yet which made him extremely nervous.
He was relaxing his nerves by resting inside his tent when a huge boom shook him from his rest.
He immediately got up and threw his blue officer's uniform on. He had no time to put his metal chestplate on when he bolted outside to check what happened.
As soon as he opened the tent's flaps he was met with a scene which was not as chaotic as he expected.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened to a strange shrill sound.
Another boom each other towards the east.
The marshal quickly ran to the magical radar tent where magical technicians were furiously scanning the information.
"What is happening?"
"Sir marshal! We are detecting large amounts of cannons being fired at us!"
"What!? Who is firing at us?"
"Sir, its coming from the wall."
Realization of what was happening dawned on the face of the marshal. He quickly left and started ordering the entire army staff together.
Not even 10 minutes later every high ranking officer was in his tent. All of them were anxious because of the shelling.
They continued to gather with the sounds of explosions behind them.
"Beatrix! You are the closest to the explosions. What is happening!?"
"Sir! They are firing at the river. Several bridges have been hit but we can cross on foot no problem. However i think that they are trying to intimidate us by firing near us."
There was a collective agreement amongst the officers.
"I understand that much, we would do the same to an army so close to our walls. What about our reinforcements?"
"Yes marshal, 150 elite dragon cavalry was dispatched from Wallaceburg a few hours ago. They will reach us in five minutes or so."
There was another collective agreement.
"Okay. We are exposed now. Gather the armies, we are going to wait for the air cover and then assault the walls. Those Kursk bastards will not hold us back."
A cheer rose from the officers who then quickly rushed back to their units to muster their forces.
All 1.4 million troops started to stirr. The regulars formed near ranks with their units while the summons stood in a mob in front of the regulars.
All of the heavy siege equipment comprised of 6-inch guns, catapults and balistae which where wheeled on horses. They had a range of 1.5 km so they needed to get closer to the wall.
The marshal stared at the western sky waiting for the air support. The sound of explosions in water continued as the barrage against the river continued for so long that one would assume that water geysers filled the river.
A dark shape etched against the western morning sun. It was followed by dozens more.
"The dragon knights are here. All units advance!"
A trumpeter next to the marshal started to blow an advance order. This was followed with more trumpets which echoed the attack signal.
Waves of summons crossed the river which only sank up to the knees. It was a wide one so an average trip took about 7 minutes to cross.
The regulars were using the last remaining wooden bridge to cross the river.
Shells kept falling from the sky into the river sending bodies flying.
The river once pristine blue took a nasty shade of black and red from the blood flowing.
The marshal on his horse watched his troops get pummeled as they crossed the river. His hand held telescope shook as the marshal started to get enraged.
He promptly folded it and shoved the telescope into his satchel.
"Why are they so slow! Just cross the river faster damn it!"
He was getting impatient. Not even from combat he was taking losses.
""Just how far can they shoot?""
As a testament to his thought a shell detonated dangerously close to his position. He already crossed the river so he thought he was safe.
"Ahhhaaha. Inaccuracies is something we share at least."
It was reassuring that the enemy guns were not completely accurate since complete accuracy would shatter their attack.
It was a gruesome hour. About 15000 summons and 300 regulars were killed. Many more were injured and retreated back to the camp.
Bodies and dismembered limbs clogged the river so badly that a blockage occurred. Water ended up building around the stack of bodies and flowing around them.
It was a surreal sight. Half of the river was clean and rapid while beyond a wall of corpses were blackened and murky water.
The marshal could feel moral drop just from being near his troops. This was not good.
"Onward! Our nation calls for you to pioneer this new land! Its riches will supply the homes of your families! Onwards for glory!"
The marshal cried while on his horse to his troops. His sudden cry was met with furious cheering and chanting.
"Glory to the Kingdom!"
"Glory to the Kingdom!"
"Glory to the Kingdom!"
"Glory to the Kingdom!"
The marshal smiled. He managed to save moral from dropping to harshly. The summons paid him no attention. They would not look at their enslavers.
They marched for another km when they were finally in range for their cannons to use.
Hastily the cannons were detached from their horses and wheeled over into a line.
Before they could open fire a low buzzing was heard overhead.
All of the Epruilan soldiers and summons started to look around.
No where could the source of the sound be located.
The marshal was also looking around for the source when a dragon landed in his ring of guards.
It was a small bluish dragon. On its back was a junior knight who usually carried air-to-ground explosives. He shouted at the marshal.
"Sir! Enemy air knights spotted! They are targeting our dragons. We will give them hell!"
The marshal couldn't help but be proud in front of a member of his country's most elite knight force.
"Understood. Glory to the Kingdom."
"Glory to the Kingdom!"
The junior knight took off to join his comrades already approaching what looked like back dots.
"Man the enemy is pretty far from us."
The marshal noticed how far the enemy knights were. It was if they were flying higher than their knights.
""No its impossible.""
Then suddenly the knights who were flying in formation started to scatter. Several of them streaked to the ground.
"Wait what?"
The marshal watched with horror as the knights started battling with black and yellow-tipped beasts who made droning buzzing noises.
A faint popping of sorts caught his ear has he watched dragons explode into flesh and blood as the enemy dragons started sparking from their extended wings.
"Oh shit! The knights are starting to engage? The enemy was so far away just a moment ago?"
As he and every soldier around him watched the horror show unfold the marshal felt a large hand grab his shoulder from below.
"Sir marshal we need to attack now while our knights distract the enemy knights!"
It was general Venix who put his large hand on the marshal.
"Yes of course. ATTACK!"
The marshal yelled the command which ripped the attention from of the troops from the air battle to him.
He drew his sword and pointed it at the wall.
With his orders all fo the infantry started charging while the control mages which stayed near the marshal signaled for the summons to charge as well.
A mass of soldiers and summons started surging to the nearest sections of the wall.
As they neared the frontline exploded, dirt and pieces of people rained from explosions coming from the ground.
"Wait, could this be a mine?"
The marshal gasped. Magical mines were developed by the Leon Empire several years ago. It doesn't make sense why the Empire of Kursk would have them but there was no other explanation.
"Mines! General Venix issue a no retreat order for the summons. Clear all of the mines!"
"Yes sir!"
The regular army halted their charge to let the summons test the waters.
Immediately thousands were injured trying to cross mine-infested land. Even worse were black, thin wire with barbs which stretched the entire battlefield.
Each barrier of wire needed hundreds of bodies to be thrown against it just to create a path for those behind them.
From up on the hills inside grey stone boxes a strange thing was happening. Orange flashes were lighting up but then dimming in systematic waves of light, the same things happened with the enemy knights. From there hails of what can only be bullets tore into the lines of summons.
Just within 10 minutes of fighting around two hundred thousand summons lay dead, dying and injured on barely 50 meters of blood-soaked land.
"Look at that. 200 thousand lost in just a few minutes. Imagine if that was our regular force."
The marshal watched as thousands of summoned slaves threw themselves at the wall in an attempt to break it.
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All around the Atlantikwall cannons were firing. From light cannons to heavy howitzers to even heavier naval guns, everything was being fired for the first time since the construction of the wall.
Wilhelm watched from the headquarters as streaks of rockets from rocket launchers and puffs of smoke from cannons sailed overhead towards the beach.
The faint buzzing of machine guns and whirring of plane engines overhead assured Wilhelm of their victory.
It was unfortunate that he could not be on the direct frontlines with his troops due to his rank but he helped to dramatically improve moral for the defenders who now had their Emperor with them, literally.
It was concerning how close the enemy army was to the wall. Their numbers are nothing to scoff at, nearly half of the the forces prepared for Operation Barbarossa which never happened.
Speaking of the Operation Barbarossa units, half of the invasion force is remaining in Poland. The other half is heading for France to supplement a counterattack into the Kingdom of Epruilon.
However nothing matters if this invasion force is not repelled.
"Sir! Our forces are stretched too far! There are simply too many enemies."
A low ranking officer rushed to Wilhelm as a message bearer from the front lines. Telephone communications are overwhelmed at the moment.
Unlike the Germans the Epruilans fought in mass formations. 1.5 million troops could be spread on a front half the size of the border of Russia but the Epruilans only concentrated them to Nantes and other neighboring provinces and cities. It was unpractical but dangerous.
"This is bad. I authorize the use of chemical agents and all weapons banned by the Geneva Convention. This force must never set foot in France."
"Understood!"
Inside of the armory which was spread all across the front men were being equipped with chemical equipment and flamethrowers. They will help to push the enemy from the wall.
It was a critical time as well. The enemy after suffering from about 500,000 casualties has made it to the sandbar and threatened to climb the defensive structures.
There is simply not enough ammunition to kill them all.
"When will the reinforcements get here? What is th Luftwaffe doing? Where is our aircover?"
"Sir!"
Another junior officer answered Wilhelm. He had a phone in his hand and was cupping the input mic.
"The Luftwaffe has engaged enemy air units beyond the wall. They must never join the fray. Reinforcements will arrive in a hour, the 7th Panzer Division."
He returned to his call of yelling into the wire phone.
Wilhelm turned back around to the battle in front of him. After a few minutes he could see yellow clouds of mustard gas flowing towards the enemy. A westward wind pushed the gas into their lines with untold damage.
The sounds of battle raged for the next hour when the 12,000 man 7th Panzer Division arrived.
They stopped in the rear near the artillery units to replenish fuel.
Wilhelm could see a staff car enter the headquarters parking lot and a man dressed in grey officer clothes quickly left the car and entered the building.
Generalleutnant Rommel walked up a flight of stairs to where Wilhelm was who was staring out of the second floor window.
"Ah, general. You are here."
Rommel studied the Emperor who was on the frontlines of a major battle.
"Forgive my imprudence but why are you here?"
""Even Hitler never visited the front line this. This man was special.""
"A million man army threatens my Empire. I cannot just watch from safety. Also I was here for other reasons but the battle occurred coincidentally."
"Ah."
Rommel smiled. He knew that Wilhelm was just using the prior reasons as an excuse to convince him that his presence was unexpected.
"Anyways my division is being prepared to counterattack. How goes the defence?"
"It too horribly. We has to resort to poison gas and flamethrowers just because the numbers were too much. Our aircraft from Nantes and Brest engaged enemy air about a hour ago. They had to return to refuel but are heading back about now."
Overhead low-flying Ju87s flew overhead and streaked towards the costal defences which were hammering away at the horde of enemies.
The bombers went into a steep climb where they circled looking for enemy air support. When none showed up the dove onto the clusters of enemies, sirens screaming.
Even from afar Wilhelm could hear those deathly sirens. It was one thing to hear it through a YouTube video but to hear it in person, its frightening.
The ground rocked with explosions from the bombs as well as ordnance fired from the artillery.
Wilhelm from his elevated window viewed watched medium tanks roll by the front U parking space where their Mercedes-Benz 770s idled.
"General Rommel, I suppose it about time you rejoin your unit. Go assist the defences."
"Ah yes, excuse me."
He saluted and Wilhelm saluted back. Then Rommel left the second floor via the stairs and headed back to his car.
Wilhelm continued to observe him drive off to join the columns of tanks and mechanized vehicles driving to the wall.
Wilhelm sighed. Now that reinforcements have arrived they would have no problem defending the wall. The fresh troops can be used to counterattack while the static defence units rest.
Wilhelm walked over to a phone on the wall. He picked it up and phoned central command.
"Hello?"
"Yes this is Wilhelm."
"Sir Wilhelm! What do you inquire?"
"Ask the command, is it feasible to counterattack with the 7th Panzer Division right now?"
"Give me a moment sir."
The phone quieted as Wilhelm awaited for confirmation. Outside the window a flaming ball of fire erupted from a Ju-87 as it was hit by a laser of sorts.
"Huh, the enemy has some anti-air capabilities. The post-battle review will address this problem."
Then the phone crackled with someone touching it on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Yes, do you have my answer?"
"Yes mein Kaiser. We have judged that the enemy is in enough chaos for a counterattack to be possible. The tanks will needs to have its heavier ones in the front."
"I understand. Have the new Tigers lead the charge."
(AU: The Tiger I heavy tank was developed in 1942, a year after this original starting time period. Think of it like a rushed technology from HOI4 where you always rush artillery III).
"Affirmative, we will notify General Rommel. Please wait for the post-battle report."
"Thank you."
Wilhelm hung up and put the phone back on its receiver.
He left the window to the lower floor to exit the headquarters.
Before he left he applauded the headquarters staff.
"Hauptmann, great job with alerting the defence so quickly when air contacts were identified. I applaud the staff as well for their quick work directing the defences."
"Thank you sir! Its all for the country!"
"Glory to Germany."
"Glory to Germany!"
They exchanged salutes and then Wilhelm turned to head back to the Chateau de docs de Bretagne.
The three car convoy sped out of the U-bend of a driveway/parking lot and headed away from the front to the castle in the center of Nantes.
While driving on a road leading away from the shoreline where continued fighting was still occurring. Before leaving the hauptmann assured Wilhelm that he could leave since the enemy force was so dangerously close to the wall.
Wilhelm felt guilty leaving as his soldiers as they were still fighting for him.
""Well I can just clean up the aftermath for them at least. I will awarding a lot of metals.""
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