The Battle to Decide the World

by TotalAaron

The adventures of a tank commander and later field commander in wars based very heavily upon the Kaiserreich Mod for darkest hour (Check it out here /mods/kaiserreich-legacy-of-the-weltkrieg ) This is my first attempt at writing so i apologize for any cringe ha ha huh anyway have fun Also features some off the main cast of Tsukihime

2. Chapter 2 Operation Unification

After only a year of officer training I was back in command of a armoured unit and the one I had been assigned was from my perspective the best of the best,

Tanks

1st tank Rollo Wolfgang

2nd tank Webber Dieter

3rd tank Don ruff-en

1st APC Erwin model

2nd APC Kanz Samuel

1st Tank destroyer Al-kin Albert

A small list to be sure but these men would be my fellow officers in the field of battle, these men would be entrusted with the state of the art tanks and vehicles of the empire and so I expected them to preform to the best of their ability, the first on the list would be my second in command here, his name was Rollo Wolfgang and he was a short stocky man of Austrian decent who had been selected for his bravery in the first world war, his service record was impeccable and just by looking at him I knew he would be reliable in his command of the tank.

The next on the list was the commander for the second tank, dieter Webber a man from a aristocratic background in Prussia who had been sent here due to his service in the war against Denmark not too long ago, he had proven himself in battle and would make a great addition to the team, he was also the tallest of the commanders standing at over six foot four he towered over the other men and showed with his every action his background in royalty, his father being the duke of Danzig a very powerful man in the courts. The next on the list was the commander for the second tank, dieter Webber a man from a aristocratic background in Prussia who had been sent here due to his service in the war against Denmark not too long ago, he had proven himself in battle and would make a great addition to the team, he was also the tallest of the commanders standing at over six foot four he towered over the other men and showed with his every action his background in royalty, his father being the duke of Danzig a very powerful man in the courts.

The last of the tank commanders was a man straight out of training in central Poland, his name don ruff-en was a very unknown man in the royal courts, he had been getting support for his claim in Dresden for the honour of being the baron of the castle there, he had been sent to the army by his father to become a man and had excelled at the training and had been sent here as a elite trainee.

The first of his transport commanders a Erwin model had been transferred here from France after he was involved in the battle for Luxembourg where his entire unit had been killed in the fierce fighting there, he had been assigned here for his experience in mass battle scenarios, I did not like the way his photo showed him off, he looked tired and bedraggled a man on his last legs not a man I wanted in my command but I had no choice in the matter.

The second transport commander was Kanz Samuel a new recruit from the Berlin garrison who had excelled there and had been transferred here for his skill in battle, he was classified as a paratrooper, but had been transferred here at his own request.

The final commander was my tank destroyer commander one Al-kin Albert a man who had seen the worst in the first world war and had stayed in the army after the war had ended, off all of the men on the list he had the longest and most prestigious war record and even before I had met the man himself I knew I would respect him even if it was just for his service,

Arriving at the border with Ukraine in my lead tank I dismounted and looked around the staging area, over a half million troops had assembled here for the upcoming war and the frantic way people where moving around showed that it would not be long till it began everywhere I looked I could see tens of thousands of men finding their squads and platoons and begun receiving orders to move to the front line my recon team drove past all of this to get to hill 190 where we had set up a Forward operating base only a week before, "Driver follow the road they will move out of the way" I said into my radio I was holding in my hand, I knew we did not have long to get to the FOB before the whole thing kicked off and we were supposed to be the tip of the spear I looked behind me to see the rest of the company (4 PANZER MK 2s) and signalled them to continue.

As we got closer to the FOB I heard the first artillery shot ring out triggering the beginning of the war, and we were not in position, "DRIVER FAST FAST!" I screamed into the radio we would not miss this because of some delays that's when I noticed it was still to early, the Ukrainians had attacked first and where now peppering the whole area with artillery, just as I finished that thought I saw the first wave of Ukrainians come over the hill flags waving, "Driver halt, gunner target infantry 400 meters, everyone else assume line formation" I barked into my radio and received a array of "Yes Sir!" in response, the 20mm gun on our recon tank begun barking at the wave of Ukrainian troops and I was happy to see our air force attempting to preform strafing runs on their positions.

But the Ukrainians did not stop instead they seemed to be running towards us in even faster of a charge bearing down upon us as fast as humanly possible but I refused to allow them to get close "Gunner sweep em right to left, all tanks do the same" I calmly said over the radio and watched as hundreds of 20mm high explosive rounds ripped through the Ukrainian ranks along with the snapping of rifle rounds being shot at the great mass of infantry, the Ukrainians broke and ran as their first attack faltered, "All tanks ADVANCE!" I screamed into the radio unwilling to let them escape, we had them cornered as I saw two other recon teams racing to cut the horde of infantry off "FASTER FASTER!" I was yelling in the radio as we continued to race towards the Ukrainians spitting death as we advanced.

It was a stunning victory, in the span of only a hour we had smashed two entire divisions of Ukrainians and where now advancing inland in enemy territory, I had heard rumours that the German empire was sending a expeditionary force to help us in our conquest, they would arrive fit for battle in a month, in the time since the first battle at the border we had pushed the Ukrainians back a good 200 kilometres in a week and our infantry was struggling to keep up, it was when we had passed the first major obstacle to our advance a series of forts surrounding the capital that where caved in and smoking from heavy bombing by our aircraft that I received some good news, "Captain you are to go north with your team and hook up with the Ruthenians as they advance south good luck" not much of a order but hey if the Ruthenians had joined the allies that could only be a good thing right? So as I entered my lead tank I found my whole crew fast asleep, I had been driving them hard but it was necessary if we allowed the Ukrainians to rally with their much more powerful army groups to the east the war was going to get a lot more bloody so far we had had it good just advancing towards retreating Ukrainian troops who put up almost no fight but if they could join up with the much more powerful army groups to the east we would all have a bad day.

The next week was very uneventful as we where halted for field repairs and replenishments, we had to wait for the 567,000 strong infantry groups to catch up to our advance and because it was cold it was taking time, it was that night that the first Ukrainian counter attack happened, although only comprised of 20 light tanks and 20,000 infantry their attack was so small many choose to ignore it but for us stuck on that hill with barely any ammunition and facing down over 500 times our number it was hell on earth, I was crouched in my commanders turret scanning the advancing troops as tens of thousands of tracers arced towards us, we where the nail that the Ukrainians where going to hammer in to stabilise the lines.

"Holy shit" I yelled as a mortar round destroyed a supply truck sending a fireball high into the sky "Gunner how much ammunition do you have" I asked kicking the gunners back to get his attention, "300 for the 20mm and 1000 for the machine-gun so still lot's" he grinned happily, the nut was enjoying this, the tank rocked back and forth as the 15mm cannon rounds from the Ukrainians tanks bounced off the hull but it was unnerving none the less, looking back through the commanders view port I saw the muted thumps of commonwealth mortars slamming down on the Ukrainians but it did not seem to bother them much at all as they continued their assault up the hill, there where now from my estimation 5,000 plus infantry within 200 meters of our position when I called the general retreat if they got any closer they would over run us in seconds "Driver full reverse all other victors fall back" I yelled into the radio, it would turn out that this would be unnecessary as just as our tracks slammed into reverse the first of the German heavy tanks crested the hill behind us and a flood of familiar German bombarded the radio, "We are here to help" the German tank leader said simply as his tanks begun to rain death and destruction down upon the Ukrainians the skies begun to fill with fighter bombers as well as they dropped bombs on the Ukrainian armour and troop clusters it was not long before the battle had returned to our favour and the Ukrainians begun to run, "Do not pursue hold your positions" I said into the radio cutting off the many cheers "why captain we can crush them now!" the commander of vehicle 3 said in obvious annoyance "No we hold we are low on fuel and ammunition charging would be suicidal. It was not long after these final words were spoken that I dismounted my tank to observe the damage, the Ukrainians had done a number on us over half of our original force was destroyed and what remained where shaken infantry glad it was all over and bruised tank crewman trying to get a grasp of the situation, it would take over a full hour for us to count our dead and wounded.

Our stopping did not bother the Germans though as they sped past our positions and begun to pursue the retreating Ukrainians, my unit was instead told to head for Zhytomyr to meet up with the other recon teams apparently the city was still occupied by remnants of the Ukrainian police force and we where to help dig them out, so after a day of rest a kilometre short of the hill we had fought on we embarked our vehicles and headed towards the city, I spent most of the ride either watching the stream of Ukrainian prisoners of war marching wide eyed towards the rear or watching the flood of refugees that were abandoning their homes, thanks to the radio in my command vehicle I could also keep track some what of the situation around us, from what I could tell this was the current situation. Our stopping did not bother the Germans though as they sped past our positions and begun to pursue the retreating Ukrainians, my unit was instead told to head for Zhytomyr to meet up with the other recon teams apparently the city was still occupied by remnants of the Ukrainian police force and we where to help dig them out, so after a day of rest a kilometre short of the hill we had fought on we embarked our vehicles and headed towards the city, I spent most of the ride either watching the stream of Ukrainian prisoners of war marching wide eyed towards the rear or watching the flood of refugees that were abandoning their homes, thanks to the radio in my command vehicle I could also keep track some what of the situation around us, from what I could tell this was the current situation.

We are pushing the Ukrainians back on all fronts and are rapidly advancing in all but two areas the city of Uman where it seemed the Ukrainians had built a series of pill boxes and anti aircraft guns in a attempt to stop us but it looked like heavy shelling would soon deal with that, Peryomaisk was taking too long to capture and so the high command had turned to just levelling the city before the Ukrainians main army turned up and finally that the city of Kiev was being prepared for the siege to end all sieges but strategic bombing was hampering that effort,, we where half way to the RV when my gunner spoke up "Sir what do you think about all this?" he said looking down, it is no secret this war is unpopular for one it is completely unprovoked and is simply a war of expansion against a weaker nation but I did not care back then for the Commonwealth could do no wrong in my eyes nor could the German emperor Kaiser Fredrick IX "The wolf" a man I would follow into hell if he ordered it so, I guess it is hard to explain just where the Commonwealths loyalties lie for although we are a independent government our head of state and overall commander in chief is the German emperor I fully supported this and was awaiting the day our nations would merge.

But not everyone supported this and many like my young gunner Corporal Alexander Provsidg who from that single sentence showed himself to be one of those left wing Poland must stand alone types I so despise but as long as he did his duty I did not care about his political beliefs so I answered "Corporal we live and die for the Commonwealth that is it, it is why we joined is it not? To make a better world for our children and to safeguard our glorious nation from all enemy's or are you doing it for some other reason?" I asked grimacing at the way the corporal glared at me before returning to his job without another word, this sort of response was not uncommon but I did not expect to see it in the confines of my command tank but did nothing more to aggravate the situation, instead I turned back to the local maps and glared at them instead.

The maps were horrible both Outdated and inaccurate showing no landmarks or local features it was a small miracle the entire invasion force did not get lost from these shoddy maps, if my guess was right we would arrive at the town in two days time if we continued to advance without trouble but whether that would happen was anyone's guess, most of the citizens I had met so far where none to pleased at our abrupt invasion and made that clear by their constant glares but it seemed armed resistance would not happen, that's what I thought at the time anyway, it was the beginning of winter and if the war continued the population was not going to be happy, the Commonwealth had taken the farms and harvest for themselves to keep us fed out here and when people got hungry they would get desperate something the high command wanted to avoid.

If only the Ukrainians would just surrender we could occupy the country in peace and bring the country back into the status quo but that was not going to happen as long as the capital still held, so we advanced through the woods towards our objective ever mindful of the flashes on the horizon marking the front line only six kilometres away, the majority of the drive was uneventful and we arrived on the outskirts of Zhytomyr

in just three days.

My initial response upon seeing the city was not good, it was burning a fierce red blaze as bombers dropped ordnance on the city the defenders had dug in hard and would not let us take the city without a fight we had lost 2000 troops in the first day of the attack alone and as we slowed down in traffic we could see why, even back here away from the city it self bombs still fell all around us hitting the portable aid and supply stations dotted throughout the forest we where in, after getting directions from a passing military policeman I dismounted and approached the command bunker ready to present my report, upon entering the bunker my first impression was these men had slept less then us the general in charge looked like a dead man walking from obvious exhaustion and the rest of his command looked none the better, I snapped to attention and said to the general "recon team 2 reporting as ordered sir!" he looked at me with his sleepy bloodshot eyes and muttered "welcome to the real war captain, my aide will fill you in" he waved towards a man fast asleep on the ground wrapped up in layers of furs and coats. The man was short in stature but was obviously some sort of officer a colonel as it turned out "I apologise captain it appears I have the flue he said sneezing every now and then, "I am told you are to take your team straight forward to the Fob we have set up at the factory district to the south of the city, we have a battalion set up their but they need armoured tanks to advance any further the Ukrainians are to well dug in" the aide pulled up a map with a bunch of red and blue circles imposed over the map of the city "we have men as far as here" he pointed at a bunch of apartment blocks two kilometres inside the city, "That's where you will be heading" he explained before continuing on "these red circles are where the enemy has dug themselves in so here in the city centre here in the suburbs and lastly here on the far end of the city we believe their headquarters and supply point is also here, he went on "You are to link up with the 23rd Storm-trooper division and assist with the clearing of the city by any means necessary we are in luck too by the way, we have the entire air force backing us in the taking of the city" he smiled before tossing me a assortment of maps and written orders along with strangely enough chalk I looked at the colonel with a quizzical look before he explained " the chalk is for writing on the doors a big X means dead inside and a big O means occupied awaiting demolitions, we learnt that the Ukrainians are using the basements as a network to build underground tunnels in we just collapse the tunnels on them it is easier than flushing them out, good luck captain stay safe" the colonel finished with a small smile that was not entirely genuine before I left for the front door.

Advancing into cities is always dangerous but more so here I found as stray sniper rounds slammed the hatch I was just standing upright in "die" the gunner commented before he sent a barrage of 20mm rounds towards the apartment block the sniper was in, and we were still not even in the city proper yet!, stay sharp every one they are not playing around I grumbled into the radio before standing back up to observe the rapidly approaching city, it was in total ruins what was not burning was smouldering only positions we occupied where spared any thought as the rest of the city was bombed constantly by either the air force or just shelling we could also see the twisted blackened corpses splayed across the road in seemingly random intervals, we reached the first Commonwealth position not long after and saw only a couple soldiers who flew inside the tank as fast as they could "Sorry about that" mumbled another captain "Lots of snipers about, I see armour finally turned up" he grinned "you want to follow this road for another ten minutes till you get to the forward most position we have" the captain explained "you wont see infantry on the street its too dangerous we have instead decided the Snipers can have their fun fighting our counter snipers, good luck" the captain finished before dismounting again and running at full pelt into cover, "you heard the man, advance" I said in the radio, the more we got in the city the more damaged it looked buildings where collapsed on themselves here and bits of people where blown everywhere you looked.

The worst was the kids, little black corpses hung from trees or trapped under rubble, but this was war not time to be sentimental, the second Commonwealth position looked even worse, they where inside of a group of shops and houses in a bad fire fight with Ukrainians across the street "Lets make a entrance" I said to the driver and gunner "peak the street and fire at whatever is shooting towards our men okay?" both men nodded before we crept forward and sent 20mm shells into the dug in Ukrainians ending the fight in a matter of seconds, after I dismounted I found the Lieutenant in charge and told him of our orders and he beamed "You wont believe it but resistance is starting to drop, the attacks are less frequent hell in a few days it would not surprise me if we just started a drive for the other side of the city.

The lieutenant was correct over the course of the rest of the day a fleet of German Heavy bombers rained fire over most of the city followed by our air force dropping massive bombs that shook the ground with every impact "earth shakers" a young private grinned "there wont be anything left to fight if this goes on" after the air force finished the rockets screeched over in a loud scream that made your ears as sore as anything as they rocketed towards the rear side of the city, and then finally came the roaring of artillery as tens of thousands of rounds blew the hell out of the entire centre of the city, looking out of the view port I saw a high rise apartment take a direct hit from a railway gun before collapsing sideways from the sheer impact of the blast, it was a horrible prospect to behold watching a massive concrete structure bend from the force of your nations artillery but it was a sight and a half to behold that was for sure, as the sun rose on the blackened sky orders where given for a general push north east towards the crossroads, the tank was bouncing all over the place as the driver attempted to avoid the worse bits of rubble blocking the street we had yet to take any sort of fire from the Ukrainians and it was starting to play on our nerves, the entire city was more or less gone, it would take months to rebuild anything at all let alone clear the rubble and the bodies, the floor was covered in the dead corpses of what I hopped where Ukrainians but where most likely refugees, as I was looking at a quite small corpse the gunner shouted " Ukrainians!" and swung the barrel towards a group of figures walking over the rubble, "HOLD FIRE!" I yelled into the radio as I saw the white flags they where carrying above their heads, I watched as the infantry advancing with us ran over to them and put them in a group before marching them to the POW trucks to the south, we however advanced further in the city towards the supposed headquarters of the Ukrainian defenders here.

What we saw surprised us, the reason we had such heavy support was because the first army group had showed up here ready to fight as evident by the burning trucks and APC's that stretched towards the horizon and the tens of thousands of burnt corpses of both soldiers and horses laying all over the place, apparently the 1st Army group Kiev had come here to help the defenders when a passing scout plane had chanced upon them and sent a report straight up the chain until over 40 percent of the artillery in the theatre along with the entire air force had been assigned

As we advanced to the north east most end of the city we saw the remnants of the Ukrainians surrendering in droves, at first it was like at the bottom of the city just a few stragglers that had just given up, but now we where watching a tidal wave of wounded and broken troops shuffling past us to join their comrades in the prison camps, it was when we had begun moving on the main highway to the Capital that we got a glimpse of the sheer devastation that had been wrecked upon the surrounding woods, everywhere you looked all you could see was trees on fire or just smouldering if any Ukrainian had run for cover in the woods well you can imagine, instead I picked up the radio and ordered "All recon teams follow the road to the Capital, Driver forward" I said switching to the internal frequency.

As we drew closer to the city we could see we where not the first to arrive, a fast moving motorised infantry unit had sped past us through the forest and had arrived at the city first and where clearing the place street by street, Kiev had been hit quite hard by bombing runs and the city was packed with Ukrainian refugees which made our job harder, I called a halt and dismounted before meeting the general in charge of the situation here, the man I found was a tall blond man with piercing eyes who commanded respect, I recognised him instantly as the third Prince of the German empire Spree the third a man known for his military accomplishments, many including myself refer to him as the miracle man for his efforts In the first world war, before I knew it I had adopted the kneeling position and was staring at the ground waiting for the command to speak, instead I heard a small snort followed by the loudest laugh I have ever heard, when I glared up to find the imbecile responsible I was met with the sight of the third prince almost on his knees in laughter at my pose, "Stand, Stand man I haven't had anyone kneel to me since I left The palace in Berlin" he grinned looking down, I quickly jumped to my feet before delivering my report "Captain Mackintosh army reconnaissance, here as ordered to assist in the capture of the city your highness" I said as straight backed as I could "I see, well welcome to the worst place in the world" the prince grinned as he gestured to the teaming city, "We have no idea how many people are here but we think its over a million easy, refugees I mean" he said pointing a hand at the tens of thousands of downcast people milling around "we think that there is a few regiments of the capital guard still in the capital building but as for the Ukrainian army that's anyone's guess" the prince mused before he continued "But we are just mopping up now, I want your tanks up front to help take the head of governments and get their surrender all over and done with, if you follow this road straight up for a kilometre you will find the building they are still holding" and so we remounted our vehicles and left for the centre of Kiev

The main road we where using had been left relatively intact despite the situation as tanks, trucks and the foot falls of hundreds of thousands of people turned the road into a pot hole ridden mess, but the German army had a engineer battalion in the area that was paving the road as the main clearing unit advanced street by street, I had been informed that the third prince had dictated that a policy of leniency be adopted to the local militias guarding the city, if they surrendered their weapons we where to leave them be however if they fought on we had no choice but to kill them before they took us with us, even despite that resistance was minimal with many of the defenders surrendering as soon as the first Empire tanks rolled past and whole columns of them where marching to the east to our interment camps we had set up for them.

I still could not get the meeting with the price out of my head as our convoy approached the centre of the city, he had been a lot different to what I had been told about him, it was a rumour that he was a merciless bastard of a man who killed prisoners for the fun of it and loved being at war so he could show off his skill in battle, but from what little I saw of the man all I saw was a soft spoken man with hopes that this war would end quickly so he could return home with his comrades, what a difference in person I thought as we advanced.

Most of the city was intact although the walls were riddled with bullet holes, sitting in the command tank I was contemplating how long it would take the Ukrainians to surrender after this, with the destruction of one of their army groups and the capturing of their capital now, the residents of the city had already made up their mind and white flags hung from many of the buildings surrounding the main road, we had not even gone half way when we received a short radio message from the Prince himself "Gentlemen the war is over stand down I say again the war is over, we have won" relief spread through me like a lightning bolt, the fighting was now over only a month into the war and the commonwealth had effectively doubled in size a win win as far as I was concerned.

Over the course of the next few days we had been put on bodyguard detail for the prince as he attended the formal surrender at the palace in Kiev, we did not expect trouble the war was won the minute the German empire got involved and everyone knew it, the building had taken a few stray shells during the battle but it was nothing that could not be repaired, the interior although maybe once lavish had been converted into a portable aid station by the head of the citadel defence a general Alex Markov who had personally seen to the doomed defence and had convinced the ruling party that the war could not be won, the rest is just politics mainly things such as they would be treated as honorary citizens of the Commonwealth so long as they behaved, they would answer to the German Emperor but otherwise they would have limited control over their cities and the like.

I was never interested in all this so I spent most of my time in the conference room looking out of the window at the people who had gathered out side of the palace, I think they where more interested in whether food trade would resume rather then who was in charge of the country but I digress, instead I found myself and my team assigned to guard the Prince as long as he stayed in Ukrainian and was happy with the order, I would give my life for the prince without a heartbeat as long as it served the empire, and today myself and my men would travel with the prince to see the Ukrainian army official integration into the empire, although beaten I could never show either pity or disgust on the soldiers as they stood on the old parade ground, over 120,000 of them had answered the call to assemble here, the prince approached the podium and spoke into the microphone his voice booming over the assembled soldiers a aide on his left translated for him.

"Men, you proud soldiers of Ukraine have fought a long war, not measured in time or distance but in men lost, both sides suffered in this war and although you where not the victor you won in other ways, you managed to hold up over twenty times your number In the worst of conditions and still fight tooth and nail till the very end, it is with a proud heart I can ask you this, if you proud soldiers served in the army of the Commonwealth you would not only be rewarded for your service but yo would be rewarded for your loyalty to your homeland, the Empire is not one of conquest we are a Empire of peace if we had not stepped in your nation would be plagued with constant wars and rebellions that would have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, your families your friends, instead by showing such bitter courage in the face of defeat, by staring down the nose of the empire before trying to take us all with you, you soldiers, comrades from another side have earned our solemn respect, and now I ask you as a soldier to another would you fight for us? To better not only your country but your family, to live and prosper as part of the most powerful empire on the planet or would you rather go and try your luck with the Russians who had drawn up plans for not just a invasion but a liquidation, the complete and utter murder of your people?. I do not expect you to jump at the offer so I will explain the benefits of joining us, better jobs and more food are a good start as with the much better training and equipment you will receive from fighting with us, your families will be treated just like a citizen of the empire and will receive all the benefits that entails, so what do you say will you fight for us, not for the Empire but for a better future a future free from war and death? If you do then repeat after me I do now pledge to become a vassal of the Greater German empire, all hail the empire."

The reply was thunderous as over a hundred thousand voices filled the square all affirming the loyalty for the new protectors of their homeland, "ALL HAIL THE EMPIRE!" they finished, I was marvelling at the princes choice of words when he leaned over to me and said "Not all of them will be like this, hell half of them are properly old soldiers of the empire to begin with, I expect the next one is Sevastopol to be a bit more negative," he finished saying with a smirk.

And he was right the garrison at the fortress attempted to kill the prince before we even got their by "accident" firing artillery at us mistaking us for "Russians" the most believable lie, after the incident I was assigned to the prince for the time being while the initial phase of the occupation was being made, next on the list was to meet the man on top of the world the emperor himself, I had to read it twice just to be sure, there was no way I was going to attend any sort of meeting with the emperor it was just impossible, the man never left the capital, why would he come all the way here? I was still trying to get my head around the idea when the prince spoke to me, "His majesty wants to see his new subjects, apparently" the prince said with a sigh "He wants to show how we are all brothers in arms in the empire, but he is really here to see the Kiev university and what they where working on" he clarified looking around with a bored expression.

I had still been unable to work out why we had been assigned to the prince when our convoy of armoured vehicles drew up before the aforementioned university, a bodyguard detail of over a thousand elite troops guarded the place with road blocks and check-points dotted around the place, as we drew to a halt the prince dismounted his own vehicle and walked inside, leaving us to sit and wait, "The emperor him self is in there" I breathed looking at the Pristine building, "I hope we see him in the flesh" I said to myself quietly so no one else could hear, an hour later the prince exited the building entered his car and we had to drive back not even getting a glimpse of the man.

After we returned to the Headquarters I would not see the prince again for a long while, instead I was to go to the city of Sevastopol and help with the destruction of a terrorist cell that had sprung up there, It was over two weeks after the invasion when our tanks pulled up alongside the local police station that had been converted into a occupation centre, although the integration process for the Ukrainians joining of the empire was going slow it was still happening the only thing slowing it down was the resistance group held up in Sevastopol that where preforming acts of terror in defiance of us, after weeks of effort the local security forces had managed to push the terrorists into a group of apartment blocks where they where trapped, they where putting up a bitter street battle but that would end when we arrived, I dismounted my command tank and entered the building to find the troopers gearing up for the assault on the terrorists hide out, they where covered in this new material that could stop a hand gun bullet and keep you alive and were armed with the newest close quarter battle weapon the Machine pistol storm, these men where going to accompany us on the attack, to clarify my objectives I met with the local commander, he was a middle aged Major who looked bedraggled and annoyed to be here, I presented myself before him for orders, I walked up and made a stiff salute that would have impressed any of the drill sergeants of the day "Captain Mackintosh reporting as ordered sir!" I boomed out.

The Major did not look amused, "Captain" he said quietly looking at me "You are here because of orders from high up, I do not want you here at all in fact your being here to begin with reflects poorly on me as a individual and it reflects poorly on my command, I did not ask for reinforcements and yet here you are, a jumped up boy who properly came here yesterday, boy you do not know war, so take your pathetic unit and sit where I tell you to sit then go" he said angry as anything.

I was about ready to explode but kept my composure as he was a superior officer and above my scorn, instead I did a about face, and left the room letting the major think he had won, as soon as I got out of the door the majors aide ran out to get me, "I am sorry about that captain" he said looking sheepish, "The major is a count in the homeland, he hates being here and makes sure everyone here knows it I am sorry about that here are your orders," the man held out a document and map, "Good luck captain" the aide said saluting and rushing back inside, still fuming I looked at the orders as I walked back to the command tank, they where quite simple we where to hold the north side of the blockade and halt any vehicles or personal that tried to escape, any that ran where to be shot.

As I walked back to my tank I met up with the other tank commanders and had them sit in a semi circle as I explained my version of the orders, "Ok Wolfgang you Dieter and ruff-en are going to set up here, along this road, any vehicles that try to escape you are to stop, a burst from the machine gun should send them running however if you revive fire or they continue destroy them with the main gun, model and Samuel you are to just sit back and enjoy a break no use for you unfortunately, Albert if you see anything that looks like a enemy tank or emplaced machine gun you know what to do, any questions?" I asked the commanders "No sir" they all answered.

As we mounted our tanks I could could just hear the fighting going on in the city proper and it sounded bad, apparently a division of Ukrainian militia had fled here during the invasion and where now making a last stand against us, and they where holding their territory somehow, even though German troops where going door to door in a city sized clearing operation the militia where wreaking havoc on our troops with everything from sniper attacks to entire building rigged with explosives, as we started the engines the sounds died away and where replaced with the roar of tank engines going to battle once more.

It did not take us long to get in position, taking only a half hour to arrive, what took time however was the fact that once we arrived at the edge of the militias territory we where bombarded with mortars and rifle fire, bullets pinged off of our hull as what felt like twenty individual riflemen where shooting at us, Alexander the tank gunner was resorting to just plunging tank rounds into the nearby buildings to cease the fire, I myself could not stand in the hatch for fear of getting shot, as this was happening I could hear the dull thump of grenades going off all around us as they tried to disable my command tank, I was having none of it.

"Driver full reverse, all other tanks reverse, go to the crossroads" I barked into the radio, as the tank lurched backwards I kicked the helmet of the gunner to get his attention "Keep firing as we move back target windows and doorways, having had enough I grabbed my personal weapon, a machine pistol with the stock sawed off and stood out of the hatch shooting controlled bursts at anything that moved, I saw out of the corner of my eye the other tank commanders following suit.

I had used up three magazines when I ducked down to grab the radio, "Hammer to CP requesting fire support over" I said into the radio "This is CP what do you need over" the radio responded "CP I need everything you have got directed at the apartments just off of main street, at point 2 fire one round and I will adjust" I said getting desperate, "Anti tank rifle!" my gunner screamed as he swung the turret around to meet the threat, as I looked where he was aiming I saw two men and a women setting up the rifle on the pavement when I ordered roughly "Fire the main gun at them kill them now!" I yelled as the gunner followed my order turning the anti tank team into a bloody mist, just as I turned back to the radio the first artillery shell smashed down on one of the buildings that where firing on us, I grabbed the radio and said adjust back 50 meters fire for effect" I said before picking up the radio for inter squad communications and ordering "Full retreat get out of here"

Just as we cleared the crossroads the shells begun to fall, even though command wanted do minimise damage to civilian property the sheer volume of fire plus the presence of dedicated anti tank teams trumped that and we watched through the view ports as buildings erupted in flames or just completely collapsed from the shells being dropped on them, we watched as a shell glanced off of a roof before slamming into a nearby shop ripping the building in half from the blast, the barrage continued for a full twenty minutes as the entire city block was flattened.

Even as the shells fell we saw German troops preparing to assault the ruins and finish of the survivors, I hoped to myself that they did not think they could draw us into a prolonged street war of hearts and minds, that was not the Empire way instead we solve problems through sheer fire-power and grit, and as evident here it was working as when the shells stopped dropping the German troops charged with our tanks providing support.

The city block was gone, no way around it the apartments the shops the local newspaper stand it was all a pile of rubble now and the people only had the militia to blame for it, I was very careful as I guided the platoon accompanying us through the rubble when we saw the militia surrendering to us, a group of bloodied and bruised men and women approached us with white flags, I said a very brief order over the radio to the sergeant in charge of the platoon with us and he and his men carried it out.

First they accepted their surrender, taking their weapons off of them and sitting them in a circle with their hands tied behind their backs, they where just finishing tying up the last one a women in her fifties or sixties when I dismounted the tank, I walked over saluted the sergeant and started their trial, "You are held under military law and are sentenced for the crimes of treason to the Empire to hang, as it was translated into Ukrainian one of the terrorists attempted to stand but was shot at point blank range by my pistol, the Empire does not treat treason as anything else but the lowest of lows and any officer of Lieutenant and above can convene a field court on the spot to deal with them.

After waiting for the last Ukrainian to be dragged off to the tree we where using as a makeshift gallows I returned to my command tank and sat down, what I had done was not very popular among the crew, they thought I had done it for the hell of it until I explained calmly that this was the law of the Emperor and any one who denounces such law is nothing more than a traitor, after leaving that thought in their head I ordered our return to the police station so I could give the major his report.

As we arrived I noticed that order had still not been restored at the police station as troopers ran to and from in a huff attempting to carry out meaningless orders, it did not take me long to connect the dots and work out that this whole debacle was from the sheer incompetence of the major in charge, as I looked around in frank astonishment as no attempt to regain order was carried out and instead chaos was allowed to fester, I was glad that I would be leaving this mess soon and was none to glad when the major came out of his office in a puff of anger and dismissed us with a wave of his hand, he made no attempt to ask for my report instead he resigned himself to just getting rid off us as fast as he could.

We spent the next three weeks in a army base in Kiev and it was very, very unpleasant, looting had become commonplace and random acts of violence where prevalent all around the city was a desperate people attempting to loot and pillage what ever they could in the face of the sheer uncertainty of our occupation, my company had no part in restoring order as we where waiting for a upgrade in tank destroyer to arrive at the base, apparently the Empires army groups facing France had been having problems with the reliability of the main gun in the dense snow and freezing cold of the forests and had asked for a replacement, we would be getting the new main gun for our tank destroyer soon, we where told when we inquired about the delay.

Instead we spent over a month sitting in the captured capital as we watched the attempt to restore order, over a million people lived here and we had inadvertently destroyed a large section of the cities infrastructure during our invasion meaning the main gas and water lines needed repairing, but because of the random attacks on off duty soldiers, these repairs had been delayed, I guessed at the time it was because of the insurgents attempting to snipe at our workers when they attempted to repair the ailing city, it was over 40 days after we had arrived that the new tank gun arrived and was fitted, it was another 3 days later when we where ordered to remount our vehicles and head for the border with Romania where tensions looked like they where about to boil over.