Code Geass: Resist and Bite
Chapter 10: Settling Down
A few days passed, and the reinforcements made it to the frontlines of the Valley. The commanders from their respected armies came out to meet their new allies. Colonel Noemi Lobeaux and Captain Marina Queen stood alongside Captain Kadri Koliodromos, Captain Iva Kakos, and Lieutenant Kassandra Stamos, "Had we have known you were coming sooner, we would have made ourselves more presentable," Lieutenant Stamos joked, the Greeks chuckled holding their rifles or at the helm of the machine guns.
The Greeks and Canadians were covered in dirt, mud and grime of battle. Commandant Letourneau nodded in understanding. These were some of the bravest soldiers her blue eyes had ever laid eyes upon, "How can you call yourself a soldier if you are afraid of getting your hands dirty? Certainly not one in my ranks," Anne-Marie commented
"Nor mine," said Lieutenant-Colonel Santorini, having fought in the brutal conditions of the Alpine Campaign in the Holy Empire's failed invasion of Italy through the Italian Alps. The Lieutenant-Colonel saluted the Greek Commanding Officers, "I am Lieutenant-Colonel Gabriella Santorini, Italian Army," Kadri and Iva shook her head. The Greeks and Canadians now had increasing numbers. Their numbers went from less than 500 to over 1000 strong in order to breach the Argos Lines, and make the march southward.
"You're the commander of the Leonessa Units, aye?" Captain Queen asked, Gabriella nodded a 'yes' to the Canadian Captain, "it's good to have you with us, we'll need all we can get to breach the lines, the Britties have turned their side of the valley into a fortress, said to be impenetrable," Captain Ethinesikas nodded to Captain Queen's words.
"The key word here is 'said', every suit of armor has a fault in it," Nika said saluting Captain Queen. The soldiers of the new troops were settling in around the lines. The Pontic Greeks were checking their gear, and setting up their M2A1 heavy machine guns in the foxholes on the flanks, "Captain Nika Ethinesikas, I am the Commanding Officer of the Pontic Units." Captain Queen shook heads with the Pontic Captain. To a Britannian, it was the equivalent of shaking hands with a demon as she has a reputation.
"You're quite the rock in Britannia's boot on the Black Sea front, Captain," Iva commented with a hand on her hip. Nika lightly chuckled. Her methods were unconventional, but she uses hit-and-run techniques against targets like Knightmare Frames, but her units also fight in open combat, "the Germans have a name for you, storm troopers,"
"We do what we have to," Nika replied, saluting the Captain and leaving to see to her soldiers. Meanwhile, Private Kozuki was taking a trip to the battery in a Leonidas II Armored Personnel Carrier. The previous battle weakened the strongholds defense. The bombardment from the Canadian GC-45 howitzers and the Greek AS90s neutralized the Britannian's gun positions. The GC-45 had an appearance that looked just like the old M59 'Long Tom' with it's four semi truck-style road wheels, and split-trail carriage.
Captain Kakos went along for the ride. She patted Kallen on the shoulder, "Have fun," Iva said with a smirk, and went to one of her unit's AS90s needed an oil change. Captain Marina Queen of the 11th Field Artillery Regiment was there. Marina has the same complexion as Iva, but has brown hair and brown eyes instead of blue.
"Captain Koliodromos said you were coming, Kozuki, welcome to the battery," said Marina as she saluted the artillery officer, and Marina saluted back with a friendly Canadian smile, and showed her to one of the heavy guns, "this is the GC-45, or GHN-45, or PLL01, essentially they are the same artillery piece just used by different militaries, we found Gerald Bull's blueprints and decided to start production during the Northern War years," Marina explained, Kallen nodded understandingly to her words.
"So how does it work? I've only seen these kinds of weapons in books, I never thought any military would still use them," Kallen replied, Marina looked through her binoculars for any targets, and saw a Britannian gun was saying 'hello' to the French and Italians whom were ducking for cover. Marina opened up the breach of one of the howitzers.
Luckily, they took cover in time, "Looks like the turkeys are saying hello, it would be rude not to reply," Marina said and explained how to fire a shell as the piece was lowered, "first we use this cleaning rod to cool the barrel," the howitzer steamed as the inside of the barrel was cleaned, "then the fun begins, place a shell in the breach and then a powder charge," Kallen cringed taking the 95lbs shell while Marina was behind her with the powder charge. One of the crew gave her the gun positions coordinates.
The shell and powder charge was pushed in, and breach was closed, and the howitzer was then aimed and cranked into the right elevation, "Now insert the lanyard here," Marina said, and gave Kallen the honors, "now use your hips and hold the lanyard and...let her fly," Kallen did as she was instructed, and the howitzer fired with a loud roar.
Kallen took out a gun position for the infantry. Captain Queen nodded in a approval, "Bulls eye," Marina turned to the volunteer from the Black Knights. Marina checked her watch, "hmm...almost chow-time down there, you best get back to your unit or the captain will worry," Marina informed the Japanese-Britannian. Kallen saluted the officer, and Iva was waiting for her in her Challenger II battle tank to give her a ride. Marina waved to her good-bye, and went back to her quarters to prepare herself some supper.
Kallen arrived back at the lines where a Britannian gun position was turned into a pile of burning scrap metal. Kadri was there to greet her. Iva nodded to her, and drove off back to where the tank unit was stationed in the surrounding forest. Kallen saluted her commanding officer, and rolled back into the foxhole, "Did you have fun?" Kadri asked
Kallen nodded lightly blushing. Kadri lightly smiled and chuckled, "That is good to know," Kadri replied, and went out to check on her soldiers and talk with the other officers that were newly stationed at the front. Kadri lightly sighed to herself, and went to join the other officers for dinner. They prepared IMPs and RCIRs, and talked about their strategy to take the Argos Valley strongholds. Kadri saluted the officers, and they saluted back, "The way I see it, we have to take out any hidden guns they might have,"
"Leave them to us," Captain Ethinesikas said, stepping up to the challenge, "hmm...there are machine gun nests here, here, and here, with cover fire I can send my raiding parties in and take out the gun nests, and clear a path for the infantry, with our uniforms we can also attack at night if that is what you prefer." She added to her strategy.
"We will need to keep the casualties to a minimum, we will have Captain Kakos's tanks lead the vanguard in a wedge formation," Noemi said pointing out the their position on the map, "Ethinesikas, take your heavy machine gun crews and have them positioned on the flanks, and have your fusiliers with us to charge the line," the officers seemed to agree with Noemi. Lieutenant-Colonel Santorini studied their plan. Knowing they may counter heavy resistance in a frontal assault, there was still another factor to the plan.
"The tanks maybe enough to cover our soldiers, but not enough to breach the lines, the flanks will still be a problem, we will need Kakos's self-propelled guns for mobile support, they know by now to expect the tanks in front, so they might put the bulk of their Knightmare Frames in front," Gabriella pointed out to the commanding officers.
"That is true, they will use them the same way we will use our tanks, we need to stay sharp, so...I advise that we place one missile for every ten soldiers, that way we can fight back if the line is breached," Commandant Letourneau suggested, Kadri agreed, seeing the combined armies had enough ordinance to pull off the assault on the fortress lines, and noticed something. Captain Koliodromos and the officers in the Greek Army had been stationed in the Argos Valley the longest out of everyone in the meeting.
"The Empire sends a large portion of it's resources to their war effort here on the Northern Line, if this assault goes as planned, we can break Britannia's back," Kadri said, but there was a problem. Britannia is vast and so is it's military man power, "we should have artillery to soften the lines first, we can do this together, ladies, we can win,"