by Carlo Zen
“Be aware of your limits! All units, if you drop out, it will be next to impossible to take care of you! Cover for each other in your pairs and get ready to withdraw!”
The situation being such that it is, they can’t get out so easily, but neither can they stick around. That’s what delaying combat is all about.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, 01! The unit has succeeded in getting the package safely off the ground! The package is now withdrawing at full speed!”
“Great! We’re pulling out, too! Band together quickly, and let’s cover one another as we go!”
So when Tanya finally receives the much-anticipated mission success notice, she decides it’s time to withdraw.
“The mission’s accomplished! Any further combat is too much risk! All companies, leave your parting gifts now! Give them two rounds of your explosion formula at max output!”
Upon receiving the order, her troops scatter smoke and noise—less to hit the enemy than to slow their pursuit—and skedaddle.
“Withdraw! We’re not picking up any dropouts!”
“Any numbskull who would drop out now isn’t a member of my battalion!”
“Huh? Are you telling us not to pick up any pets?”
“Right, you’ll have to put it back where you found it!”
The bantering unit is the very definition of elated. As for their status, no losses. All that needs to be taken care of is a written explanation for why they jettisoned their heavy gear and anti–surface strike equipment.
She can probably foist that fight on Galba Control.
Well, Tanya thinks optimistically, I should call it a win that we learned something about combat rescue missions in enemy territory.
A mage unit can perform anti-surface attacks as well as fish out any downed friendlies. In a way, you can almost say we pioneered a new realm of mage operation.
“Troops, it’s fine to enjoy yourselves, but cut the chatter! Withdraw, withdraw!”
““““Yes, ma’am!””””
Mary Sue experienced true hatred for the first time that day.
It hurt to fall to the ground.
“…Dad’s…”
It hurt more to be shot.
“…That was Dad’s gun.”
But compared to the pain in her heart… Compared to the overwhelming hatred…
“…She…she killed him!”
Mary Sue would never forget her. The gun that she gave her father… She thought it must have been lost the day he died…
…His hands were so warm.
It should have been held in those hands.
But instead, of all people, an imperial soldier…that devil was brandishing it!
“How dare you shoot that gun?! How could you? How could you? I gave it to my dad, and you…you!”
Dear God, why…?
“I’ll never forgive her. Not ever, not her!”
Dear God, please give me strength…
…Please give me strength to kill that devil.
[chapter] VI Operation Door Knocker
JUNE 25, UNIFIED YEAR 1926, A GENERAL STAFF RECUPERATION FACILITY ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE IMPERIAL CAPITAL
A military facility under the jurisdiction of the General Staff on the outskirts of the imperial capital… In this quiet, peaceful corner of the world, Lieutenant Colonel Tanya von Degurechaff is engaged in the desk work she had always dreamed of as rear personnel.
She’s working on the combat skill research report from the aerial battle in the west they’d been fighting just the other day. The law of this world is for everyone to do what they are suited to, and it’s Tanya’s fervent wish to perform analysis in the rear.
To make that dream come true, she’ll probably have to rely on her results for all sorts of organizations and keep the focus on them.
I’ll get those results and obtain my place in the rear. As the first step, I’m achieving some things in the Strategic Research Office. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, she’s spending yet another day sorting out paperwork in the office that has been temporarily assigned to her.
From Tanya’s perspective, the Empire is currently surrounded on all sides.
Apparently, to our beloved imperial subjects and the great intellects of Supreme Command, it looks like we’re taking one step forward for every step back…but I think the prescriptions on their glasses are off. Tanya strongly recommends swapping out those eyeballs as well, if they can’t look directly at reality.
It’s true that the Imperial Army is maintaining the lines in high spirits.
But does no one have the good sense to point out that being able to hold the lines is a whole different dimension from being able to win the war?
With a sigh, she picks up the mug she’d abandoned, and as she drinks the cold coffee, she makes a bitter face—the coffee’s all gone downhill, too.
Currently, she’s at a General Staff recuperative facility. For better or worse, the General Staff hangs on to its aristocratic tastes, so they don’t stock ersatz coffee.
But the imports must have slowed to a trickle. With the Commonwealth Navy and the remnants of the Republican Navy controlling the sea, there probably isn’t much that can be done…but if all we can get are these old, flavorless beans, it says a lot about the caffeine situation in the Empire.
The quality of the coffee we’ve been able to get has decreased year over year since the fighting began. Surely this is the most eloquent barometer of the state of the war. And in reality, year over year our enemies are only getting stronger.
For instance, the increased presence of the Unified States in the west is something we can’t ignore. As for evidence that the difficulty of getting good coffee beans is their fault, take the regular army forces calling themselves a voluntary army that is basically made up of the Unified States vanguard.
Tanya was out there with fists flying like she meant to smash them with her coffee grudge, but finding them more powerful than expected, she was forced to acknowledge a brewing crisis.
But setting aside the General Staff’s thoughts, Supreme Command doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation. She prepared an official report with all the details and particulars and sent it in marked “urgent,” but the response has been awfully muted.
It seems they’re underestimating things, and their ignorance makes Tanya want to cradle her head in despair.
Being dense can be useful depending on the situation. But in the Empire’s current one, it’s not so great. If we continue to put up with this as it is, we’ll be boiled frogs in no time.
“Sheesh,” Tanya has to grumble.
Turning my attention to my personal situation, I’d like to be happy that Tanya’s been promoted, but irritatingly enough, it’s difficult to wholeheartedly enjoy.
No, a win is a win. There’s no doubt about that. Unit Usage and Operational Maneuvers in the Current War (which she wrote based on the mobile battles in the south, the initial maneuvers in response to the situation in the east, and the surveys and other research she did in the air battle in the west) was accepted without a hitch, and both that and her promotion to magic lieutenant colonel were filled with the joy of hard work paying off.
Although it’s unofficial, she’s also received word from Lieutenant General von Zettour, along with his praise, that he looks forward to her participation in the newly established joint project between the Service Corps and Operations, the General Staff Strategic Research Office.
So all Tanya can do is hope that they can win or at least avoid a fatal defeat.
Defeated nations don’t have much use for high-ranking soldiers and military careers, aside from in mercenary corporations. Tanya’s been spending her precious time polishing her military record. In order to not waste this human capital investment, she hopes the Imperial Army will hang in there.
Much of that hope is placed in the next leader of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion. So far there haven’t been any instructions about a successor…but probably it will end up being Captain
Weiss, like she suggested previously. The only potential issue is his rank.
He’s been advancing at a pretty quick clip, too. According to the Imperial Army system, he’d have to be promoted to major to take command of the battalion…but apparently, they need a little time.
In Tanya’s case, General von Zettour used a loophole in the system to promote her to major, ostensibly for forming the battalion. I suppose they can’t use the same trick too many times.
They’re not very flexible. Tanya sighs at her desk. She’d like to complain—There are too many people trying to hold you back—but she suppresses the thought.
That said, staying commander of the battalion a bit longer, at least in name, and letting Weiss collect more experience will help me avoid any griping about his promotion pace from the desk-work group in the rear, too.
Tanya stays on top of the necessary groundwork even though it’s a pain.
Still, it’s not a bad gig.
Having achieved a measure of success in the western aerial battle and so on, the members of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion are resting in General Staff lodgings in the capital per standard rotation.
Since they’re lucky enough to report directly to the General Staff, her subordinates are living it up in a recuperation facility that normally only staff officers get to use.
As for Tanya herself, until the General Staff finishes refereeing her paper, Unit Usage and Operational Maneuvers in the Current War, she’s just filing the documents that come in from the Strategic Research Office, desk work that anyone could do, apart from needing security clearance.
Of course, you can’t discount the element of trust. Glancing down at the papers spread across her desk, she sees they are all classified documents stamped “top secret, to be handled with caution.”
She’s glad she has access to these secrets.
Since she can deepen her knowledge of the Imperial Army’s condition and foreign affairs by analyzing all the intelligence collected by the General Staff on each front, it’s a pretty interesting job, and Tanya enjoys it. Best of all, unlike frontline duty, she gets to be done at quitting time each day.
Free from night interception patrol missions and going out to meet invaders at all hours, she relishes tranquil, safe sleep each night. To Tanya, keeping regular hours is the first step toward the return of normalcy.
And a proper lifestyle rhythm makes her office work fruitful.
For example, most recently, she’d been working on a booklet aimed at specialists titled The Origins of Federation External Action.
To outsiders, it may be surprising, but those tainted by Communism and its party’s ideology are in fact bigger believers in power politics than their ideology, and this pamphlet takes a critical look at that. I didn’t have very high hopes for it, since given the subject matter, I figured only experts or people in diplomacy would look at it, if that, but apparently, it’s had a great reception from all sorts of people, including within the Imperial Army.
Tanya is relieved that it seems her work is being properly acknowledged. She may be confident in her desk work and analysis abilities, but it’s great to be able to rack up accomplishments.
Yes, I intend to do desk work for the rest of my life. The law of this world really is for everyone to do what they are suited to. Every organization should prioritize talent management.
After returning from the western battle lines, this is really almost like a vacation…but Tanya looks steadily through the documents as part of her voluntary service—although she’s thinking all along that if failure is unavoidable, she can save up her assets in preparation for a worst-case scenario and consider defection.
But it should probably be said, the lines are apparently managing to hang in there. Luckily, according to reports from the front.
Analysis of the attrition ratio bears out that they’re in a very good situation—overwhelmingly superior, even.
Said ratio is being maintained at seven to one.
And, I may add, this statistic is being measured according to rigorous standards, nothing like those of the absurdly inflated, sloppy Formosa Air Battle17 reports.
General Staff officers are going there in person, and before worrying about our own attrition, they’re estimating enemy losses by speaking with prisoners and counting actual corpses.
Even if soldiers grow on trees in the Federation, this rate of attrition has to be a heavy blow.
So Tanya trusts that if the current situation continues, victory isn’t unachievable, and they won’t lose.
If there’s anything to worry about, it’s the Unified States, the world’s biggest weapons stockpile, attacking from behind.
Fortunately or unfortunately, imperial industry has a good relationship with Unified States industry despite being rivals in certain cutting-edge fields. It would be great if their industrial sector opposed the war, but in a military-industrial complex, industry doesn’t have as much influence on politics as the world at large tends to think.
On top of that, while the idea that the munitions industry makes bank during a war is a partial misunderstanding… The truth of it needs to be confronted. Specifically, the problem is that even if the corporation as a whole is running a huge deficit, individual employees and their clients in the military will make bank.
Just the thought that they need to anticipate such people trying to incite participation in the war is enough to make Tanya gloomy.
The Empire has the fight against the Federation in the east as well as the confrontation in the west with the Commonwealth, which it hasn’t managed to soundly solve yet. The Unified States boasts industrial productivity worthy of being called an arsenal; it joining on the enemy side when the Empire already has two fronts open would entail despair and only despair.
The Empire’s foreign policy task is to peacefully soothe the States before its industry shifts into a wartime posture—even if the diplomatic effort takes a lot of kowtowing. I’d like to suggest that we do whatever it takes to appease public opinion there and buy time till it all breaks down.
After all, the Unified States is naturally a democracy. Democratic countries go to war only when they’re really angry. In other words, if we make the Unified States mad, that’s it. Conversely, as long as we don’t anger voters, we can avoid a war.
She intends to make an argument regarding the Empire’s strategic diplomacy with that as her main point in her next paper, but as she’s taking her notes, she’s interrupted by an unexpected visitor.
“Colonel von Degurechaff, may I?”
“Sure, come on in, Captain Weiss.”
Captain Weiss has essentially been put in command of the combat unit as of a few days ago.
Officially, the vice commander is still her subordinate after she foisted the unit and its issues off on him, but she’s given him much of the discretion.
He used to be the second-in-command.
The hand-off has been going so smoothly that Tanya can’t imagine what he’s come to ask her so urgently while they’re on leave in the rear on a personnel rotation.
She’s already told him to take charge as if he was in command.
Tanya openly explained to the General Staff that she was going to leave command up to her subordinate during their recuperation and reorganization period as part of his education. They approved it, so in a way, it was an official trial period.
Tanya hasn’t spared any pains to get him recognized early on as her successor, so really… What is he here to see me about?
“Sorry to bother you, Colonel. I came with a request.”
“For me? I’ll certainly cooperate in whatever way I can. Or are you here to tell me not to poach any of your men? Lieutenant Serebryakov is my adjutant, but I don’t plan on pulling anyone else out of the battalion.”
Not to brag, but the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion is an elite unit. Tanya built it that way.
With their combat experience, they’re seasoned vets with nothing to be ashamed of as direct reports to
the General Staff. Surely, they’ll continue to fight with all their elite bravery.
And as far as Tanya knows, the internal conflicts or antagonism that tend to be the biggest problems in units such as this one are virtually nonexistent.
In a nutshell, it’s a very cozy battalion.
“Colonel von Degurechaff, I’m very grateful for all your kindness. But although my request is related to that, it’s something quite different.”
“So then, what is it? It can’t be that you want the instructor unit to teach, can it? I guarantee you’re skilled enough.”
Weiss is early in his career yet an old hand with the rare experience—in the Imperial Army—of having fought on every front. And although he’s been under Tanya, his experience running the unit is the real deal.
He bows with a thank-you, but as far as she can tell from his expression, he was trying to bring up something difficult and couldn’t find the words.
“Captain Weiss, this is you and me. If it’s something within my authority, I’ll spare no assistance. If it’s hard to say, I’m not going to force you, but…I hope you can tell me what’s on your mind.”
So Tanya, as a good boss, takes it upon herself to face up to her subordinate’s worries with sincerity.
Tanya is generous enough to help if she can.
When the trust is there, that is.
As a boss, there are some subordinates who are worth any amount of your time and some who aren’t worth even one second. The former are those promising talents like Weiss, who think for themselves but still ask for advice. The latter are the idiots who make calls on their own without even reading what’s in the handbook.
“You’re too kind.”
“You’re an outstanding vice commander. So what is it?”
Therefore, Tanya von Degurechaff, who takes a liking to her subordinates based solely on their functionality, can be affectionate with them. Of course, it’s kindness in the sense that she’s not fool enough to shoot down her capable subordinates’ fantastic ideas.
