31 August, 1914; Late Conch era


My dear daughter,
I am fine. I am still at the base in Lüffdow, and me and the others in the squad haven't been sent out to fight yet. I miss spending time with you and your mother. How are you two doing? Are you both alright?
Your father,
Cyril

After having finished writing the letter, Cyril put the letter into an envelope on his work desk; he would mail it to his family once he got the chance to. Cyril wasn't too keen on his current situation, and the war in general. When the war first broke out, he was called to report to the Inkling base in Lüffdow immediately, as he was one of the best strategists of the Inkling military. Unfortunately for Cyril, not only did he live near Sanlöw (a small village within the northeast of Inkling territory), which was quite the distance away from Lüffdow (in the central-eastern territory), but he was not permitted to visit his family at all, being told that he was needed at the base to help coordinate the defence.

For the Inklings, the war was not looking good: in just a few weeks, not only had they lost several key defensive lines (the one at Sanlöw having just recently collapsed after the supply lines broke down), but with the Octarians now three miles away from Lüffdow, and growing ever closer to the central provinces, and Inkopolis was practically under siege at this point. Another draft had gone out four days ago to scrape togther what defense force they could, and the five thousand conscripts were being hastily sent en masse via public transports (as there were far too few military vehicles at the ready) to the last line of defence: the Choral River, which Lüffdow was adjacent to.

The duty befell on Cyril to organize a defence along the Choral, which was not that simple of a task. Not only would he have to plot out the distribution of ink munitions to the conscripts to ensure that no area of the defence would run out, but he would also have to take the new Octarian weaponry into account. Not only would they be dealing with the ink turrets (now dubbed "steam guns" unofficially by both sides), which would negate roughly any counter-attack, but now there were reports coming in on the presence of sharpshooters using some new type of ammunition never seen before.

However, the Inklings did have a few aces up their sleeve. With the technological advances of the Octarian military unofficially noted, a few Inkling engineers took it upon themselves to provide the Inkling military with technological advances of their own. They were able to develop large mobile cannons that fired arcing shots high in the air before impact (a improvement of a previous design, which held a much shorter range and was a fairly delicate tool), as well as a portable, yet less reliable variant for infantry. The portable cannons were made possible due to old documents of what the humans called "mortars", and the abitious engineers were able to replicate the technology for the most part; within the war's first few days, both new weapons of war were ready for both field use and mass production.

Cyril's defence plan was near completion when one of his subordinates rushed into his office. "Sir, all three main Octarian columns are advancing quicker than we expected. At their pace, they'll be here within the hour," the subordinate said quickly before exiting. The news proved to be a complication to him, as he now only had a few precious seconds to put finishing touches on the defence strategy before sending it off to the NCOs commanding in the field in order to direct the soldiers as such. His plan was to divide the forces present into three seperate lines to guard the bridges at their edges with makeshift baracades, from which they would allow for some space between their force and the Octarians, especially if it came down to destroying the bridges. In that event, the force would retreat to the town outskirts, where the second defensive line was. He had placed the force under the general command of Captian Richard Harris, the NCO of the 23rd Infantry Battalion, who had the experience of another war under his belt. Cyril had hoped it would be enough to at least hold the line until the main force could arrive to reinforce the line.


One hour later

The first wave of reinforcements had arrived just mere minutes before the Octarians began their assault along the Choral, and were hastily positioned along the three bridges that the Octarians were approaching from. As the battle began, it looked like it would become a stalemate (mainly due to each side's respective new weapons), Cyril phoned Captian Harris on the status of the lines and the incoming Octarian force.

"Field report, Captain Harris." After a few seconds of silence, the captain responded; on the captain's end of the line, there were the distant sounds of exploding artillery shells and various ink guns firing off. "There are at least two Octarian battle groups currently engaging us. They seem to be on the defensive now, so I relayed their positions to our heavy artillery." Cyril breathed a sigh of relief. "Good to hear things have not gone too south on your end." Cyril said, being sure to note the changes on the large map which detailed the current positions of the battle. "And captain, new orders from command. They want your unit to destroy the northmost bridge along the Choral and order a retreat to the second line. Our scouts report that the Octarian reinforcements will be ariving within the hour, and command wants that bridge destroyed quickly." … "We'll see what we can do, but with the Tako keeping us down, it's going to take a while"

"Understood, captain." Cyril said as he hung up the phone, and continued to plan formations out with the newly gained information with two other high-ranking officers. "Seems that new term is becoming popular with the soldiers." he said to himself. He had no idea who was the first to use "Tako" as a term for the Octarians, but all he knew that it was derived from an ancient dish called "takoyaki". Cyril, after plotting out the Octarian formations, went to telephone the lesser NCOs for their field reports.


At the front

Captain Harris hung up the telephone and called for fifteen of the line's reserve troops. When they arrived, he briefed them on their mission. "Orders came in from HQ. All of you are to use the explosives brought in to destroy the main bridge to town while the rest of the line pulls back to our second line. You will all be divided into three seperate groups. Groups one and three will cover the advance of group two to the bridge as well as when they plant the eplosives; and do be quick about it. HQ reports that the Tako are due for reinforcements soon." … "Sir, yes sir!" replied all fifteen, as they then proceeded to move on though the many artillery craters to the bridge.

Both groups one and three used their portable mortars to keep the Octarians pinned down as group two made their way towards the bridge. Once they reached the bottom bridge (and luckily for them, the water of the Choral was not too deep), and under heavy fire from Octarian machine guns, they began to carefully place the explosive charges (bundles of dynamite) around the support beams; in the process of setting up the dynamite, two of the five inklings were splatted by the Octarian fire. Once the charges were in place and connected to the main charge via wire, they hurried back to the main line and pushed the lever down. The resulting explosion killed any Octarian soldiers on the bridge instantly, hurling any of the corpses that weren't blown to bits, and threw splinters of wood and shrapnel, both large and small, into the air. They all landed in every direction around the blast, the shrapnel injuring anyone within radius.

Once the three lines had fully retreated to the second defensive line"Sir, this is Captain Harris. The bridge has been destroyed, I repeat, the bridge has been destroyed." The captain reported to Cyril. "Very good captain. That will slow their advance greatly. Hold the line and draw the Octarians in, but you are not to advance your force beyond the defensive line. Our artillery is being moved into position, and command wants to avoid any friendly fire. After that, you are to hold your positions and await further orders" … "Understood loud and clear, sir." Cyril then hung up the telephone and sent a messenger with fire coordinates of the Octarian positions to the artillery; the message read:

- "NEW TARGET AREA. GRIDLINE 7909 - 8227. MOVE UP TO GRIDLINE 5230 TO BE IN FULL RANGE OF PREDICTED OCTARIAN POSITIONS." -

After sending out the messenger, Cyril then telephoned the lesser NCOs, telling them the same thing as he told Harris: to hold the line and draw the Octarians into the trap he had set up. He personally felt it unfortunate that proper phone lines could not be established with their main artillery units, but their supply of wire was limited, and it was either having efficient communication with their artillery or with their frontline units. After thinking more over the current situation, Cyril then went out of the room to fetch a drink before returning to monitor the battle with the other COs.


The Octarian's assault continued on several hours, with the inking defense holding despite an overwhelming force being presented before them. However, as soon as the Inkling reinforcements finally arrived, the Octarian offensive began to fell apart. Eventually, with the combined effort of the Inkling artillery and the coordinated infantry counter-attacks of the now-reinforced lines soon after, the Octarians were now threatened with complete encirclement, and thus forced to withdraw their troops and abandon their assault at the Choral River

With Octarian Plan now in shambles, their attempt at capturing Inkopolis was, for the time being, halted completely. The Octarians, now on the defensive and desperate to hold on to their captured land, retreated 359 miles from the Choral River and dug in, constructing a series of 200 mile long trench lines; the Inklings, in process of pushing the Octarians out of their borders and not wishing to be out-manuvered, did likewise. Their lines bended back and forth, in a futile effort by both sides to encircle the other. Before long, both reached the sea at each end of the trench line.

Neither of the sides could have any idea of the horrors, both old and new, that were to come throughout the next four, grueling years of war.

End of Act III

Author's Note:
Unfortunately, this update took longer than
I would have prefered, due to the same
reasons as last time (proofreader and
myself preoccupied with schoolwork).

Therefore, the next update may take even
longer than this one. All I can ask of you,
dear reader, is that you be patient with the
next update of the fic. I can assure you that,
despite priorties being focused on schoolwork,
the next update will come as soon as it possibly
can be. (Hopefully by the end of November; and
yes, I do have plans for a holiday-centered chapter;
those of you familiar with events in early WWI will
know what I'm referring to)

With all that said, for those still following the fic, dispite
the delays with it, I thank you. Again, I will have the
next update out as soon as possible.