by Carlo Zen
"Which is to say...?"
"I'm embarrassed to admit the younger officials did just that. So we waited till their hangovers subsided and made them rewrite it."
Wincing a bit awkwardly, he presented the private meeting with an honest account of the behind-the-scenes workings and added that he realized other ministries were laughing at their somewhat extreme antics.
"In the current plan, with the vast concessions and large reparation bill, we're essentially treating them as a client state. It's not realistic in any sense of the word. Of course, I threw it back at them to have it redone!" He chuckled wryly as he related the inside story. "Ah, excuse me. That was a tangent. Please strike it from the record."
"That's fine. Secretary, as he says." The clerks dutifully gave their verdict with the benevolence of those free of the anxieties of youthful error.
"A question. Umm, how will surrender be handled?"
"Well, the army will take care of that. At least, it wouldn't be good to put restrictions on the military leadership before the war is over. What's important is for us to do a proper job on our respective tasks, don't you think?"
The conclusion they reached was to do what they could to respond to the military's requests. Then they diligently moved on to the next topic of discussion.
"Now then, our next order of business is the trade agreement with the Federation..."
THE SAME DAY, THE 203RD AERIAL MAGE COMPANY'S GARRISON
"What? The Republican Navy is withdrawing?"
Major Tanya von Degurechaff's first response to the news was delivered in an even voice.
So Visha didn't notice her superior was working incredibly hard to maintain that monotone. After all, it was the afternoon after they had invaded the Republican defensive lines and finished their anti-surface support mission, and as far as Visha could tell, the message from high command seemed like good news.
"Yes, Major. It's a general message to all troops from home. Vice Minister Major General de Lugo has ordered the Republican Navy to stop fighting and move. Now the end of the war is only a matter of time."
Notice of a cease-fire and word that the Republican Army was abandoning their position and retreating---surely that had to mean the Empire's dream of victory was coming true.
"Lieutenant Serebryakov, did they actually say 'the end of the war'? Not 'cease-fire' or 'surrender'?"
"Major?"
So for a moment, Visha wasn't sure what her superior was finding issue with.
"Are those the exact words they used? 'The end of the war'?"
"My apologies. I didn't see those words written there."
Come to think of it, the major is such a stickler for accuracy. I really messed up. Adding my own optimistic view to a report for her is a no-no. As Visha was regretting her goof, Major von Degurechaff calmly asked another question.
"One thing. You said this is under Major General de Lugo's orders? Where are they withdrawing to?"
"Ah! Please excuse the omission. Apparently, they're gathering at the Brest Naval Base."
The message definitely included the detail that they were withdrawing to Brest on Major General de Lugo's orders. Oh, brother, I can't be so irresponsible just because we're about to win, reflected Visha solemnly, impressed by her superior's attention to detail. You'd think I'd know how she likes her reports after being with her ever since the Rhine Battle. The whole base is in a celebratory mood, so I guess I've gotten a bit lax, too. She finished her introspection with a vow to take after her superior's prudence.
"Brest Naval Base? De Lugo...? Sorry, can you get me a map?"
Thinking how amazingly attentive the major was---always ready to add more to her stores of knowledge---Visha pulled out a map and spread it across the table in a way that the major could see it well.
Her face as she stared silently at the map was so earnest that carelessness seemed like a foreign concept to her.
So just as Visha was about to ask if she should be bringing coffee if it would take a little while, Major von Degurechaff pounded her fist on the table and stood up, trembling all over.
"...Shit! These gigantic numbskulls! Why didn't they realize?!"
"M-Major?"
"Lieutenant! Prepare to sortie---on the double! We're taking all the V-1s! Get them on the runway---now! And get me Lieutenant Weiss!"
The fierceness on her face and the shrillness of her voice left no room to question the order. Visha knew better than probably anyone else how foolish it would be to oppose Major von Degurechaff when she was like this.
So she barely saluted and confirmed the order before running off. Just as she was told, she alerted Lieutenant Weiss that he was being urgently summoned, and then she went straight to the V-1 hangars to get them ready to deploy.
"Excuse me."
"Good, thanks for coming, Vice Commander. We don't have much time. I'll get straight down to business." Tanya speaks the moment Lieutenant Weiss salutes and enters the room where she is poring over a navigation chart in agony and distress. "The enemy fleet is concentrating in Brest. The brass thinks this is the Republic withdrawing as part of the cease-fire, but I say that though they may be withdrawing, what they're doing is escaping in secret."
To be blunt, what they are pulling is unmistakably a Dunkirk.
"They mean to extract what military organizations they still have and continue fighting. If we don't beat them here, the war won't end."
"Major, with all due respect, the cease-fire will be declared tonight. Attacking now would be..."
"Lieutenant, a cease-fire is not the same as the end of the war. It's something else entirely. And as of this moment, we're still at war."
He must not understand. Weiss's leisurely reticence to take her attack order is unbelievably frustrating.
We can't get Dunkirked. We can't let them escape. We can't waste this victory. If we don't eliminate him---de Lugo---now, the war won't end. No---we won't be able to end it.
And if that happens, the path forward leads to a morass, and the only way out of that is ruin.
She can't let that future come to pass. Not after being worked like a horse in a total war. She can't let her organization, the Imperial Army, go out like that in this nightmare scenario. My employer going bankrupt is the worst possible outcome, so it must be avoided at all costs. Therefore, Tanya is determined.
"But..."
"Lieutenant, the record will show that you raised an objection. Now you must act. There is only action."
They may scream, but we will act. I'll ruin my military career if it will prevent us from getting Dunkirked.
If we act now, that fate is still preventable. Tanya is sure she can get authorization for recon-in-force. The general notice of the coming cease-fire is a sizable obstacle, but since her unit reports directly to the General Staff, they should have the power.
In the worst case, a single mage platoon would be enough to get the job done. She could drag them out under the pretext of officer reconnaissance. Once they were off the ground, no one would be able to bother them. The radio silence inside the V-1s flying at top speed would be the perfect excuse. We should at least kill de Lugo along with his capital ship rather than kicking ourselves for letting them get away.
"Excuse me, Major!"
"Is the unit ready?"
"Yes, but base command is calling you."
Even with it happening before their eyes, any sensible imperial soldier would find it hard to believe.
Or hard to watch, perhaps.
"Please let us go! I'll do anything! Just let me--- Let my unit go!"
The agonized scream was almost like a curse.
"Authorize us, even just my unit, to sortie! Please!"
The hands clutching his lapels were at once powerful and tiny.
The warped expression and pleading tone of voice were a petition to avert destruction. No, her voice was more like the wail of one desperate for salvation.
And the one acting that way, with no regard for appearances, was th
e capable Imperial Army officer said to have maintained unparalleled composure during the Rhine Battle.
"The events of this hour---this one brief moment---will determine whether the Empire gains the world or loses everything!
"Please," she said. "Please let us go."
Major Tanya von Degurechaff had abandoned rules, norms, and regulations, and that was her plea.
Yes, the one declared a model soldier by everyone, the officer von Lergen admitted to fearing on an instinctual level. She had unhesitatingly cast all that away under the gaze of everyone nearby and grabbed the lapels of a superior officer. She was practically threatening him with her shouts.
Which was why everyone present was so confused that they simply stood there, unsure what to do.
Even her subordinates, though they stood perfectly still in utterly silent rows, were wearing expressions that said they were shaken and perplexed by their superior's incomprehensible clamoring.
She was a veteran field commander, a proficient officer who got through any impossible challenge unfazed, a fearless mage who could penetrate a fleet's air defenses, a night fight professional who crawled around under the veil of darkness as if she owned the battlefield.
Of all the people in the world, she was probably the one most unfamiliar with the emotion of fear, and yet here she was shouting with a face that was unmistakably pale.
Her subordinates had no choice but to stand there at a loss.
"Just---just five hundred kilometers! That's all we have to advance! The key to the war, to the future of this world, is so close!"
Her right hand gestured to the map hung on the board. She was pointing at a strategic Republican Army position where a group of suspicious transport ships had assembled according to a report they had just received: Brest Naval Base.
Brest Naval Base, one of the Republican Navy's principal bases, was one of the places the Republic was expected to concentrate their fleet prior to the cease-fire.
Which was why everyone in the Imperial Army interpreted the Republican fleet gathering there as preparation for a cease-fire to end the war. Of course, legally, the war wasn't over yet.
Still, everyone was compelled to say, surely it's impossible for the Republic to continue fighting now that they've lost their capital. The end of the war is only a matter of time.
Then came this request---no, more like an entreaty---for authorization to attack the Republican fleet.
That base was tightly defended under normal circumstances, but with the additional fleet's cannons, it had to be a veritable porcupine. Anyone who wanted to go charging in there had to have something wrong with their head. Any reasonable commander would hesitate.
And yet. And yet here she was practically beside herself, insisting on an attack plan that could spoil the negotiations to end the war.
"Now! We must act now! Please, please! Give me the forces to suppress the Republican Army at Brest. Please let me, let my unit go!"
"Major! Major von Degurechaff! Please calm down, Major!"
"Colonel, please! Please send some troops! If we let them get away, they'll become the root of all the Empire's problems!"
It was hard to imagine how all that fury came from such a tiny body as she pulled the base commander down to her level by his lapels.
"Major, I beg your pardon!"
The military police officers who couldn't bear to watch any longer tried to come between the two, but furious, Degurechaff continued to shout, keeping all attempts to quell her at bay.
"Colonel! Please, please let me talk to the General Staff Office!"
A wounded lion would probably be less of a handful.
The MPs had training and boasted a fair amount of strength, but with the caveat---surely, they would agree---that their opponents were normal humans.
If any mission would give someone second thoughts, it was fighting a mage. Every soldier had a visceral sense of how troublesome confronting a mage could be. The only ones who could pick a fight with a mage wearing a computation orb was another mage similarly equipped.
And their opponent in this case was...a recipient of the Silver Wings Assault Badge with Oak Leaves---a living recipient, at that.
Her medals, enough to warrant calling her a human weapon, were not merely decorations. Even in the rear, they called her by the alias "White Silver" in recognition of her achievements, while other voices called her "Rusted Silver" out of fear.
If she were an enemy, they wouldn't want to get anywhere near her. Even as allies, they didn't want to get in her way.
But the imperial soldiers recalled their duty and obstructed her.
Though slick with cold sweat and trembling in fear, they were faithful to their duty through and through.
"Major von Degurechaff! Please, Major!"
She may have been a little girl, but she was still a mage. Having steeled their resolve, they all leaped at her at once. And it was when her protective film repulsed them that they finally realized how uncommonly earnest she was as she shouted.
"Colonel, I beg you. Please, please reconsider this. For the future of the Empire, we must act now!"
"...Ngh. Major von Degurechaff, you need to calm down!"
But even the commander of the base was an imperial soldier. If he could be coerced by a commander stationed under him, he wasn't fit to be in charge.
"The fall of Brest is only a matter of time. We don't need to pointlessly wear down our forces! Major! I can't let you ruin the cease-fire!"
"The cease-fire hasn't been declared yet! We can still save our army if we act now!"
"Major von Degurechaff! That fleet has already been defeated. It no longer constitutes a threat to our army!"
With a glance at the hesitating MPs, the staffers raised their voices to forestall her. They didn't think they could convince her with muscle, but they figured if she was a soldier, she could be persuaded with words.
So they tried it.
"Ahh, please, you have to understand. Time is the issue. There's no time! Colonel!"
But although Major von Degurechaff was said to be so sensible words weren't even necessary, today she stubbornly held her ground. Not only that, she insisted, openly impatient, that they should attack with all they had.
It was almost as if...
Yes, without a doubt, she was pleading as if she were afraid of something.
How absurd. Rusted Silver? Afraid?
That can't be, thought several of the bystanders.
They just didn't understand yet.
"They mean to escape in secret, to abandon their fatherland like rats!"
...And what about it?
The question popped into the staffers' heads instinctively, and they weren't wrong. True, armies did eat a lot even during peacetime. Since there would be a starving stomach for every man, the outcome was clear. A tragic fate awaited an army cut off from its supply lines.
Above all, the collapse of an army with no base was only a matter of time.
If one considered this, then the troops gathered at Brest Naval Base were surely units for rebuilding the defensive lines. Most of the soldiers followed that analysis and concluded that perhaps they should be on the lookout for a counter-landing operation instead. Aha, it would be problematic if they did the same as us and threatened our supply lines by landing in the rear.
"But won't they just self-destruct? Isn't that all that would happen?"
What is she afraid of? Slaughtering a single isolated army isn't so hard to do!
But it wasn't as if everyone was perfectly at ease.
After all, the young girl practically losing hold of her sanity before their eyes was universally acknowledged for her excellent brain.
People knew her as a genius from the war college or even the General Staff's darling or an underrated strategist.
"Self-destruct? No, they won't! They're--- No, he's trying to facilitate an escape for some of his forces! We cannot let that happen!"
The shrill roar of her voice echoed sur
prisingly loudly over the base's runway. Yet, still no one could understand what made her keep screaming like that, though she was running out of breath. Anyone who saw her knew she was calling for something, but they couldn't figure out what it was.
Why is she being so insistent? How did she reach that conclusion?
"That theory has nothing to back it up! It makes the most sense to consider the units as replacement defenders or counterattackers."
"If we let them escape, the Empire's victory will be jeopardized! We'll eventually collapse!"
A few people tried to think. But cruel though it may have been, it was too late.
The Empire's victory will be jeopardized. The Empire will eventually collapse.
The response to those shouts was quite different from what the shouter expected.
"All right, hold her down! Major, that's enough!"
As if everyone's patience had run out, the order was given to get her under control. The MPs and her unit reluctantly set about tearing her off the commander, but Degurechaff's resistance was unusually fierce. Even though it was five men against a little girl, it took all their strength to pull her away.
"Colonel, please! Please!"
It was a scream that lingered in the ears.
"Can it, Major!"
"We must destroy them at Brest Naval Base! This enemy is a threat to the Empire! We have to annihilate it here and now! Please, you've got to understand---I have to do my duty as a soldier! This isn't what I want, but I know we must destroy Brest Naval Base!"
"Major, it's not happening!"
He still brushed off her prayerlike wail.
"...Would you please allow me to go?"
"Give it up!"
"Major!"
"Please don't try to stop me. Commander, I should already have the authority to do this."
The base commander's logic was crystal clear. Her action would endanger the cease-fire. But Major von Degurechaff's refutation was also clear: I don't give a damn.
"By the authority invested in me by the General Staff, I'm going ahead with a recon-in-force mission."
Then, unbelievably, she turned her back to the general shouting himself hoarse trying to get her under control and raced with determination back to her unit.
