by Carlo Zen
Good question. Tanya nods at Serebryakov’s comment. It’s not as if Tanya herself hasn’t been tempted to do exactly that. To prevent potential accidents, it’s best to set a policy for the whole unit about how to handle things.
“We’re up against the Communists, so there’s no need to hold back…or so I’d like to tell you, but just this once, I can’t. I’m going to make myself clear: I won’t tolerate any misfires.”
Our opponent is the Commies; they make people suffer. We should weed them out according to the market principle, but we need to stay true to the market’s main foundations: deals and contracts.
“We’ll have the Federation take the first shot. I can’t give permission to fire on the Federation Army until they attack the eastern border.”
“…We’re in another awful spot, huh?”
“I agree with you, Lieutenant Grantz.”
“I understand how you both feel, Lieutenants, but this is an order. Anything else?” Seems like we’re done here, thinks Tanya as she purposely begins to change the subject. “If that’s it, then I have one more thing to add. The captain of the flight has been kind enough to offer to be our decoy and continue violating Federation airspace after we drop.”
I honestly feel horrible about it, but the plan is for this “transport plane” to remain in enemy airspace for us. It will maintain its altitude and course after we go to keep the enemy from immediately figuring out our drop point.
“In the event of a Federation attack, the safety of this aircraft is not guaranteed in the slightest.”
What will happen if it gets intercepted by fighter planes or mages? Well, these are the guys who turned the Red Square into an international airport, so it’s entirely possible they could totally miss their target, but still.
These are Commies. They shoot down even civilian planes. They probably handle things so bureaucratically it’s as if democracy, liberty, and philanthropy all fell through a hole in their heads. I’d like to assume the plane will be safe, but do Commies even use logic?
“Don’t forget their kindness. Respect those who stand with you on the battlefield. Give thanks for the sacrifices of your brothers-in-arms. Consider the fatherland’s expectations that we will fulfill our duties.”
I truly hate war. I believe killing others is the nastiest business in all of human history. Logically speaking, it’s an utterly inexcusable waste of resources and human capital.
Still, for this fight, I’d like to say this:
Glory to the freedom fighters!
“In other words, I expect you to complete your mission as usual. Give your all for your fatherland and His Imperial Majesty. Glory to the Empire!”
“Glory to the Empire!”
To an amateur, this mission probably seems reckless. A single battalion of mages is pretending to be ranger paratroopers. It would technically be better to have the airborne specialists infiltrate.
This mission is basically asking us wizards to fight using our fists instead of magic—and with almost no time to prepare.
Incredibly reckless.
But we’re up against the Reds. Even if it’s unreasonable, we have to do it somehow.
The school of thought that preaches nonviolence works only against civilized countries. Yes, it might be an option against people who would hesitate to point a gun at someone who isn’t resisting.
Sadly, Communists would merrily shoot.
As a free individual with zero interest in being overrun by an oppressive totalitarian nation that happily kills even those who don’t resist, I have no choice but to fight.
A few minutes after Tanya conveys her determination to her men, the time comes.
“Major, we’ve reached the operation zone.”
The captain informs her they’ve arrived at their destination. From now on, he and his crew will continue to violate Federation airspace unescorted.
If we can’t honor their sacrifice, we don’t deserve to be called freedom fighters.
Give me liberty or give me death.
This is a holy war to secure, defend, and protect freedom. If there’s any duty that can’t afford to be shirked, then battling totalitarians to defend the relatively free world surely must be it. I don’t want a war. But staying friendly with a totalitarian nation of unparalleled brutality trying to murder its neighbors will be difficult.
It’s hard to coexist with the world’s evil. Especially for a model citizen like me, but that goes without saying.
“Battalion commander to all units! Drop, drop!”
We must not flinch before the darkness.
Tanya throws open the door, shouting at the top of her lungs, and urges Serebryakov to jump.
“Then if you’ll excuse me!”
“Gather together in a group. I’ll pretend I didn’t see the knives for silencing any witnesses. This operation is go! I say again, this operation is go!”
Everyone has their drop parachute on their back, and no one in my battalion hesitates to leap out of the plane. Understanding that the most dangerous part of the airdrop is the descent, the unit both swiftly and skillfully begins jumping, with admirable discipline and no grumbling.
Tanya, too, ducks her head and jumps out of the plane, taking care to maintain proper distance from the others as she falls. There is no time to enjoy diving through the darkness of the quiet night sky—she soon lands in what seems to be appropriately wild backcountry. In this wide expanse, there is no sign of people, but the ground isn’t swampy, either.
She quickly recovers her parachute and meets up with the nearest troops who landed ahead of her. She takes charge of the group and leaves the stealth prep to them.
Luckily, there are no numbskulls who got separated from the group and lost their way. As these are elites, there has been no trouble to speak of, and things are going according to plan. Judging from this series of events, regrouping is going swimmingly.
This amounts to a pat on my own back, but the skill of each officer deserves special mention. Serebryakov and Grantz, who I sent ahead of me, have even taken command of platoons and set up a perimeter defense.
There is something to be said for training, then training some more, and finally making it through your baptism in combat. The battalion succeeds in quickly regrouping, free of confusion despite the darkness, then readies itself.
All Vice Commander Weiss and I need to think about is how to evaluate the situation and what our tactics should be. A unit where the leadership puts in proper thought and the bottom simply does as they’re told should be praised as a model of efficiency.
“Lieutenant Serebryakov, report in on our status.”
“Yes, ma’am. Regrouping post-drop is complete. No losses. Lieutenant Grantz’s company is currently on watch. At present, we haven’t spotted anyone affiliated with the Federation, including civilians.”
“Good work. Are there houses or anything?”
“We’ve found some light sources, but all of them are concentrated in the area previously supposed to be a staging point. We haven’t seen any sign of civilians within a radius of several kilometers.”
Good. Tanya nods. Then Weiss, who has just run over, delivers the report she’s been waiting for.
“Sorry to interrupt, Major. The long-range wireless setup is complete. Monitoring functions are normal.”
“Okay. Oh, Captain…I don’t suppose there’s anything about the imminent start of a war?”
“Nothing at present. We only detect heightened levels of Federation transmissions.”
“…Anything from home?”
“Not yet, Major. The Empire hasn’t talked about starting a war yet, either. Incidentally, the signal is clear, and we are certainly not experiencing any jamming.”
Tanya nods. So it hasn’t started yet.
“We need to be ready to pull out immediately in the event the Federation’s mobilization is a bluff. Lieutenant Serebryakov, check to make absolutely sure we haven’t lost any parachutes or other gear.”
&nb
sp; Having Serebryakov confirm our preparedness to withdraw is for the off chance we get lucky.
With an “Understood!” Tanya’s adjutant races off to give the gear another once-over. We’ve got to grab a hold of Lady Luck and pin her down, but at least I’m sure Serebryakov won’t cut any corners.
“It seems you’ve really begun trusting Visha as a commander, Major,” Weiss comments from behind Tanya as she watches Serebryakov go.
Tanya nods as if to say that it’s only natural. “Lieutenant Serebryakov has shown me she’s the real deal and earned my trust. I believe in those who deserve it. I don’t really think there’s any more or less to it than that…”
“Yes, it’s exactly as you say… Major, I realize it’s presumptuous, but would you let me lead the approach toward the enemy staging area?”
“Oh brother, is that what this is about?” It’s not as if I don’t trust you, too, Tanya implies as she gently pushes back. “Captain Weiss, the commander leads. Besides, they’re not the enemy yet.”
“Major, I realize I’m still being presumptuous, but I hope you’ll reconsider.”
“What’s the issue you’re trying to raise?”
“I think I’m better equipped to handle the physical stresses of a no-magic march. If you don’t mind, that is.”
Oh. Tanya finally realizes where this is coming from.
In a nutshell, this was prompted by what happened earlier. I lamented my quiet voice, and apparently, when I left the explanation of the operation up to Weiss, he finally recalled the disparity between our physiques.
And he must have realized that in a contest of pure strength that doesn’t involve magic, Major Tanya von Degurechaff is a fragile little kid.
“…I should be happy to have such a good man under me, but there’s no need for you to go to such extremes.”
Him worrying about me at this point will only cause problems. Well…if being a delicate maiden could get me a position in the rear, things would be different.
As a mage who had no option but to choose the military academy or be conscripted, I can’t have my fitness to command questioned now. Even if he made his offer in 100 percent good faith, it’s easy to imagine what might come next.
That saying about how the road to hell is paved with good intentions feels awfully real right now.
“I apologize for overstepping.”
“No, I appreciate it,” says Tanya, even as she determines internally that she needs to make a demonstration of her power.
Logically speaking, it’s foolish for a commander to demonstrate brute courage. But this unit is an augmented battalion of forty-eight. There’s no law that says the commander can’t go on a recon detail.
And given that she is currently trying to figure out a way to do the impossible, she could actually be praised for upholding the Imperial Army tradition of leading from the front.
“Okay, back to the mission. We’re going to go observe the Federation Army, and I’d like to use the standard procedure for night reconnaissance.”
“Who will be in the scouting party?”
“I want you to stay; I’ll take Serebryakov and maybe two more.” Tanya says that it’s a tough choice, but internally she’s already made up her mind. At this delicate juncture, on the brink of war with the Federation, she has to go herself.
If her subordinates were to get ahead of themselves and initiate combat, she would, without question, be the one to blame. That’s just how far a commander’s responsibilities go. In that case, going herself is the only option.
“Regardless of what a normal unit is like, our battalion isn’t made up of children who need their hands held. We’ll conduct an officers’ patrol…”
But Weiss wants to be on the recon team, and his points are worthy of consideration. These are the soldiers of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion who carried out separate advances in independent units while fighting on the southern front. They aren’t a bunch of new recruits who would fly into a panic at the mere absence of their commander.
So Tanya steels herself—to make an exception and go scouting with just the officers.
“Time to go to work, guys. Let’s do this quickly and quietly.”
Tanya and the rest of the officers of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion promptly advance—without relying on magic—to do some recon. That is, they approach as close as they can on foot.
But they don’t even have to take much of a risk to grasp the situation.
A glance through binoculars is enough to reveal huge amounts of supplies and soldiers. There’s way too much live ammo for an exercise.
“Relay our situation: The 437th was right. And it appears we’re too late.”
Even at a distance, she can see countless barracks in a flurry of activity despite the fact that it’s long past sundown.
On top of that, is what people would usually say in this kind of situation, I suppose…
There are several tank divisions staging here that aren’t even supposed to be stationed in this region according to the treaty. The icing on the cake is that their railway guns are already in a forward position.
Don’t bother thinking about their range—having railway guns in this region is an outrageous act tantamount to a declaration of war.
Agh. Even though it’s dark, a close look shows that the barrels are slowly adjusting. Considering the amount of time it takes to correctly align railway guns, they must be preparing for an offensive.
Railway gun barrels don’t last long to begin with, so there can’t be any other reason to work them so hard. Even if this is a live ammo exercise, I’d like to ask them exactly where they think they’re exercising.
“Major, look at that!”
When Tanya looks through her scope in the direction Grantz indicated with a stifled shout, she sees what are clearly piles of fuel and shells. As she watches, the soldiers who came out of the barracks begin to board a ton of trucks, apparently on orders from an officer.
If this is all a bluff, the Federation is performing one hell of a tightrope-walking act.
“…Maintain radio silence until the last possible second. Make a report the moment those railway guns fire in the Empire’s direction.”
“Understood. Will do.” Weiss, who carried the long-range encoded signal machine, hooks it up to the wireless.
He’s using a onetime pad, which means even if someone intercepts our signal, as long as they can’t decode the message, the chance we expose our positions is low.
Now we can call our little recon mission complete.
The question is what to do now. The main issue is that we’re not technically at war yet. There haven’t been any reports about fighting breaking out, either.
Even if it’s only a matter of time, we won’t be forgiven for attacking preemptively. Besides that, whether to retaliate when Federation forces open fire is another question.
We may be in the vicinity of the border, but we’re still clearly operating in Federation territory.
Even if the enemy strikes first, if we counter immediately, we’ll have to explain what we were doing there in the first place.
In the defense of freedom, it should be our right to strike first. Unfortunately, our nation demands politically correct behavior.
It’s too bad, but as a tool of the state, I must obey the organization—even if by blowing up those mountains of ammo and fuel, we could save our allies and get rid of a ton of Commies.
I suppose I’ll simply have to hold back.
“Serebryakov, this is an order for all units: We must not engage first.”
“U-understood.”
Trusting in the skill of her adjutant, who quickly sends a directional optical transmission to the troops behind them about fire discipline, Tanya turns inward as she thinks about war with the Federation, which suddenly seems much more real.
The enemy must be daydreaming about a one-sided attack on the Empire. In other words, this is the best time to blindside them.
But if we do t
hat, we’ll have to answer why we happened to be on Federation land when the attack took place. After all, the Federation is currently not at war. And Communist propaganda is tough to beat.
This should come as a surprise, but North Korea did declare that South Korea attacked first and even tricked some amount of people for a while, so there’s precedent. Well, there is the possibility that all those were hopelessly pro-Communist anyway…
One option would be to wait the better part of an hour before attacking…but wasting time like that could prevent us from keeping up with the enemy’s moves.
But as noted earlier, attacking right when the Federation Army does has its own problems.
Okay, thinks Tanya as she racks her brain, but her thoughts are interrupted by the scene before her.
The railway guns have been slowly getting their minute adjustments…but all the barrels stop moving at once. At the same time, the Federation position falls momentarily silent.
What the—? It happens almost exactly as she reaches for her binoculars.
“They actually fired…”
The words that spill out of Grantz’s mouth as the guns roar say it all.
The railway guns erupt, and the racket at the staging point suddenly revives.
If it was only one shot, there might have been room to claim it was a misfire, but…this is something else. One look at the motions of the Federation soldiers already loading the next round makes their intentions clear. There’s no way to misunderstand what it means when railway guns near the border shoot in the direction of the Empire.
“Major! The Federation is attacking all along the front…,” Weiss says, turning pale as he monitors the wireless.
“A declaration of war. Just now, the Federation declared war on the Empire!”
“And what does home have to say about that?”
“A-an order just came through: ‘All units, regardless of whom you report to, attack!’”
So they’re telling us to do it.
