Post 11: Bad Thinking
[Spoiler= "Winning Vote"]
[X]Plan What's Geneva?
-[X] Priorities:
-[X] First Priority:
-[X] Fortifications
-[X] Second Priority:
-[X] Loot
-[X] Third Priority:
-[X] Captives
-[X] Forth Priority:
-[X] Mages
-[X] Captives action:
-[X] Have Cousin Marius and his regiment guard them (Priority 3 – high probability, very low chance serious mistreatment but likely to be forced to work.)
-[X] (Optional Extra) Assign Aisha to help guard captives. She has Centurion rank, and can warn Tribunes and Prefects that you will be lethally displeased if the captives are mistreated.
-[X] Negotiations action (select as many non-conflicting options as desired):
-[X] Try and have negotiations at all, if they come through the gate before the next sally.
-[X] (Optional Extra) Have Alus Gerlind and his squad accompany diplomat and provide protection. Reduces chance of initial outreach hostility resulting in casualties.
-[X] Fortifications action (select non-conflicting options as desired. Priority 4, only 1 option. Priority 3, limited to 2 options. Priority 2, can select up to four options. Priority 1, unlimited.)
-[X] anti-tank ditches.
-[X] incendiaries.
-[X] defenses likely to be effective against guns.
-[X] interconnected infantry trenches to try and force CQC.
-[X] positioning and optimized fields of fire for artillery and archers.
-[X] Barricades or choke-points around the gate.
-[X] See if you can build scaffolding or a tunnel over the gate, so you can fire down on anything that comes through.
-[X] Mages action.
-[X] Good luck! (priority 4)
-[X] (Optional Extra) Send Sasha and her squad to carry message and talk to her teacher. Increases odds of success, decreases time to reinforcements.
-[X] Loot action.
-[X] Figure out what rifle is available, write up plans, send a dozen guns and plans to mom (priority 2, uses reserves)
-[X] If available, issue out hand grenades and careful instructions on their use to trustworthy and reliable centurions. Err on the side of caution.
-[X] If possible, demonstrate the effects of an infantry rifle to the local commanders. Emphasize that these are standard-issue, as common as a Legionnaire's sword, and briefly extrapolate on what that might mean for field engagements. [/Spoiler]
You were lucky. The Japanese and their American allies didn't choose to pursue immediately. In the command meeting, you pushed hard for authority over the fortification design. The traditional, Romanesque fort would be totally ineffective in this instance; bullets would penetrate straight through the wooden stakes, let alone heavier machine guns, autocannon and tank shells.
Unfortunately, you were challenged for this command by Lucius Avitus, Legate of the Fourth. Apparently he considered himself something of an expert. Having been personally responsible for the attack not being a total failure, you thought you had a good chance of getting the job despite your lacking political status or rank.
You thought wrong. Your unnatural adorableness worked against you in the most wicked of ways. Not even reminding the general how you had personally saved his life, or how Avitus hadn't even seen the enemy was sufficient to sway him. Not only could you not command your defenses, since you had "interesting ideas" and a "passion" for the subject you were assigned to work as Avitus' assistant.
You're not sure if you're being paranoid, but you suspect that Being X made you adorable just for this very moment.
Avitus was insufferable, a true incompetent. He was the sort of political officer that was likely to die in some sort of tragic "mistake" back in your previous lifetime; competent enough to get high command, incompetent and arrogant enough to fuck up when it's most important and get a lot of people killed.
Your plans were in tatters; your hastily thought of methods to help reduce your disadvantage, to slow the enemy advance enough that you could kill enough armor to turn it back – those were rejected wholesale.
Instead of going with a modified modern design aimed at slowing the enemy advance and allowing your troops to close to hand-to-hand, Avitus went with an inward-facing wooden palisade. It looked somewhat like an inverted star-fort, leaving a bare area near the Gate as a killing ground. To give credit where it was due, the design was good. It had nice lines of fire for archers and artillery, and if there were a parity of weapons and training it might even have worked.
But there wasn't that parity, and the design lacked every feature that might help.
No anti-tank ditches; it could provide cover for the enemy's infantry.
No defensive earthworks likely to give true protection from gun and cannon; Saderans don't dig into the ground but stand tall behind their walls.
No barricades or choke points around the gate; they might interfere with the killing ground.
No incendiary traps; the mode of deploying incendiary material advised by Tacitus' manual is by artillery.
No structure immediately surrounding the Gate; it might be hit by friendly artillery, or prevent the enemy from coming through to their rightful deaths.
The only suggestion the man took was to have a trench for infantry to get into CQC. Except instead of an easily dug trench some twenty or forty meters long, the moron decided on a sapper's tunnel into the center of the killing ground. The damned thing started from over a hundred meters away, behind your lines, and wasn't even halfway done by the time the Japanese came through for some vengeance.
Honestly, you were so pissed off that you started off to assassinate the man, only to be warned off by your oaths. Incompetence, it seemed, was not sufficient cause for execution.
The only saving grace was that you were able to choose Marius' billeting locations. You picked a slight rise behind the Gate with a good view of the "killing ground" for his supposed headquarters, then promptly occupied it yourself. He was wise enough to follow your instructions for digging in, and his men quickly fortified the place well enough that it could at least resist modern assault.
Your company would be able to operate on the ground with sufficient cover and prepared firing positions to improve your odds of survival, even if no one else had those same advantages.
Other than that though, you convinced him and some other auxiliary commanders, friends of his, to prepare to retreat if needed. There was a semi-covered path, a depression that was likely an old stream or such, that led through some hills near the Coan forest and Dumas mountains. Brush was cut and dried for covering smoke, and cached supplies of food and water located along the way.
The bulk of his forces were further back, alongside the path of possible retreat. You had managed to convince Julius to put the captives under his guard, and then impressed upon Marius the importance of the prisoners being well treated. To ensure their safety from other Imperial military members, Marius established a fairly typical palisade with ditches, a legion camp in miniature.
You also assigned Aisha and her squad to help guard the captives. She had Auxiliary Centurion rank for the campaign, and could warn Tribunes and Prefects that you would be lethally displeased if captives were mistreated while just straight up ordering lower ranks not to do so.
The food supply wasn't that good for the captives, at least compared to the modern plenty they were used to, and they might have been hit rather more frequently than they'd ever been in their lives, but they weren't treated substantially differently from common soldiers. In other words, well within the laws of war.
As for anything serious or criminal, as far as you were aware no liberties were taken with the captives. At all. Marius managed to secure them quickly enough that they were all held together rather than being claimed by individual officers. Your claim that they might be hidden mages was accepted by Julius, and any that had been claimed temporarily confiscated. Beyond that, even the shittiest of the politically connected narrow-band tribunes were busy enough preparing for a counter-attack that they didn't have time for liberties with the captives.
The captives themselves were remarkably well behaved, models of modern Japanese civility. Beyond that, they were fascinated with Aisha and your magical girls and boys. It was something to bear in mind that might help you in the future. Aisha, meanwhile, demonstrated an impressive ability to learn and teach languages, and rapidly had her squad speaking an understandable if pidgin form of Japanese.
Unfortunately, you were too busy with the fortifications to spend much time cultivating the captives.
What spare time you had was taken up by inventorying the loot your company had captured. Altogether, you had twenty M4 carbines along with forty-eight hundred rounds of 5.56 ammo for them. You also had forty M9 pistols, also with forty-eight hundred rounds of nine-millimeter. There was a single M240 machinegun which you took the time to take out of the aircraft configuration, with a single box containing two-hundred eighty rounds of ammunition. Lastly, you had a box of forty hand grenades.
With regards to your loot, you focused on drawing plans to modify the carbines to be magical guns. It was a possible modification, but fairly complicated to produce. When you sent the plans to Mother, she only managed one gun every other day, though you suspected that with more practice she'd average about one a day.
The modification itself, however, was nearly perfect, a state of the art mechanimagical combat device. Overall you expected significant improvement to combat abilities with an increased range, rate of fire, accuracy. The bullets would at least improve the damage output of your mages as well, though your own magic was beyond that level.
Unfortunately, though you now had two of these weapons thanks to your mother's efforts, you were the only one who knew how to shoot.
The grenades were distributed to a group of staff-slingers, handpicked from an auxiliary cohort. They practiced how to arm and throw them, and represented a fair bit of effect against infantry. You deployed them in penny packets to turn back infantry, though you doubted the Japanese would be foolish enough to use them.
You tried to organize a demonstration of an infantry rifle to the local commanders, but the idiots didn't even show up. A command staff meeting over-ran, and they all claimed to be too busy, openly dismissing you.
Morons. One even said that he didn't want to listen to such a pretty girl, and had better uses for your mouth. You broke his jaw, and told him that that was a better use for his mouth.
In the desire for magical reinforcements, Julius sent Pontius off to Rondel to request assistance. You sent Sasha and her squad to carry him. They went via Italica, picking up Tullius en route to lend greater weight to their request. Luckily Rondel had a strong response, partially due to Pontius and Tullius' arguments.
Twenty sages along with about forty students left to provide mostly non-combat or strategic level support, while forty Rondelian Mage-Knights and their squires accompanied them. They were expected to arrive after two weeks, though Pontius and Sasha's squad flew back ahead of the expedition.
Meanwhile Julius did attempt to make a peaceful overture to the Japanese. Unfortunately, he sent his envoy with an olive branch; while it was the symbol of peace here, over on Earth it was just a confusing tree limb for people expecting a white flag. You weren't sure if the guards had itchy trigger fingers or thought the olive branch was a magical weapon, but they fired on the man.
Only the fact that Gerlind and his squad were there as protection saved him from the burst of gunfire, and they were forced to retreat. Still, the fact that no-one had died was a good sign for future negotiations, and it was now likelier that the Japanese would recognize the meaning of olive-branches in the future after their analysts had their say.
And then, a week after you had first gone through the Gate, the enemy attacked. It came in the middle of the night, though there was at least a half-moon and so things weren't as difficult as they might have been.
The first tanks came through as a pair, side by side, pouring out smoke and from what you learned afterwards rapidly lined their cannons up on artillery positions. Clearly the enemy had used a camera on a cable or some such to scout through the light-blocking Gate, and were ready for your defenses. You arrived in time to see another tank came through, this time accompanied by a SPAAG (self-propelled anti-aircraft gun) with a pair of autocannon.
Shit. You sure as hell weren't launching into the air with that so close by.
"Storm-Hawks!" you called out. "Squad Aisha, keep the prisoners secure. Squad Sasha, Squad Gerlind, stay in cover and engage from the ground! Shoot and move; don't stay there waiting for return fire. Aim for their rear or the treads. If they're immobilized, find a new target! Get to it!" you shouted. Not the most motivating speech, but you didn't have time. Your reserves were with your mother; they'd be able to protect her and escort her to safety if the worst were to happen, at least.
"Yes, Milady!" you heard them raggedly chorus, zooming into trenches and aiming at the enemy.
The Imperial reaction was a fucking mess. A cavalry unit had sallied, only to be cut down by machineguns and retreat. It was orderly, but left a lot of dead. Archers had managed to injure a machine-gunner or two, which was something. The artillery was actually far and away the most useful; the mass of fires and smoke reduced vision, impeded night-vision goggles, and somewhat reduced accuracy.
Between that and the fact that the crews were excited and seeing combat for the first time, the tanks were less accurate than you had expected.
Aiming your gun, you recited a brief prayer. You hated it, but had never faced modern armor and wanted the boost.
"For what they are about to receive, may I be truly thankful," you muttered.
Then you fired and missed your first target in the smoke. Damn. Reacquiring, you fired again. This time it was a hit, the powerful explosive round killing a tank that was leaving the Gate. A moment later a massive secondary explosion rang out, likely ammunition cooking off, and sent the turret flying until it smashed into the side of one of the tanks that had left earlier. The treads along the side of the second tank seized, and it spun thirty degrees as one side suddenly came to a stop.
To your left and right a flurry of explosive spells flashed out from Sasha and Gerlind's squads. Sasha's unit managed to hit another tank's treads, immobilizing it, while Gerlind's hit but did no significant damage.
The Japanese tankers were cool under fire. They kept pushing more and more vehicles through, and had rammed the tank carcass blocking part of the Gate's exit. Their machineguns chewed through walls and reinforcing infantry as their cannon destroyed any artillery position not using indirect fire.
For all that though, their strategy sucked. Whichever officer came up with it should have been cashiered. Instead of this methodical push with a fairly defensive posture, gathering up as a massive armored fist, the Japanese should have been more aggressive. If they'd pushed their first armor platoon all the way through, crashed through the defensive wall, then you'd have been truly screwed. You'd have to either abandon those men and those tanks as targets, or pop up and get shredded by anti-air. For all that tanks seem like mobile fortresses, they should have been used as cavalry. Hit fast, strike through, and allow the infantry to follow that up.
Instead, they were waffling about inside this space, likely waiting for full company or, even more idiotically, battalion strength before making their next move. You doubted that the US was in charge of the planning; that or they had sent their very lamest officers.
Still, you were thankful for their mistakes. You fired again and again, missing a tank and then hitting it's turret. Unfortunately, you only ringed it, failing to penetrate, and so upped the amount of power you were devoting to each spell. Sasha's squad had targeted and killed one of the SPAAGs, while Gerlind's missed or glanced off a tank's armor.
By this point the Japanese had started to establish a controlled zone, and were organizing with assigned zones of fire that included the rear lines where you lay. The Imperial archers were largely suppressed, as were the artillery. The Imperials in general were starting to break, their morale low from the chaos, the unholy racket of cannon and machinegun, the hellish smoke and fires not helping. The artillery were lobbing firepots quick as they could, making aiming slightly harder at least.
You aimed at a tank, fired, and saw the tank slam to a halt as the tread was destroyed. Tracking, you hit and killed another tank. Judging from the increased chaos, it must have held the enemy unit's commander. Sasha targeted another SPAAG, and though it wasn't destroyed the turret seemed to be immobilized; it was now far less of a threat. Gerlind's squad managed to ring the turret of another tank, panicking its crew but not doing any real damage.
With their commander dead, taking significant casualties and under real threat for the first time, the Japanese armor weren't responding well. You figured that rather than retreating now you'd stay and cause a bit more damage. The Imperials, meanwhile, had broken though the artillery were bravely maintaining position to lay down more smoke. You fired, immobilizing another tank though your follow up shot was slightly hasty. Sasha's squad hit another near the cannon. Though the turret didn't stop, and the tank wasn't immobilized, the fire became much less accurate; you thought they might have hit whatever was being used for night-vision. Gerlind's group seemed less effective in the smoke, missing above and around their target.
Then the American armor came out of the Gate. It was obvious to your eyes. They were simply better soldiers. Rapidly analyzing the situation, the burned out and immobilized hulls of their fellows, they pushed through the front, crashing through the palisade and inspiring the Japanese to follow them. The Imperial retreat, already shaky, turned into a full on rout. You decided it was time to go.
"Last volley, last volley!" you cried out, switching to a more rapid but lower power fire to make the tankers a bit more hesitant to chase you. Sasha's squad managed another mobility kill, while Gerlind's took out an American machine-gunner or tank commander who had stuck his head out of the turret. And with that, your battle was done. It was time for a rapid retrograde.
"Fall back, fall back!" you ordered, then lifted a whistle to your lips and blew for attention. "Stay low, speed slow! We'll still move faster than the others, and I don't want anyone trying to fly through the ground. Sasha, lead the way. I'll take the rear, go!"
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Now 1st Lieutenant Itami was sitting in a nominally bullet-proofed Toyota high mobility vehicle wondering what the fuck anyone had been thinking.
He'd had a pretty busy week. Following his admittedly impressive defense of the palace, caught by dozens of camera-phones and camcorders, he had been lauded as a hero and hastily awarded an Order of the Rising Sun – the first for military merit since World War II. When he met the Prime Minister for the ceremony and a bit of public relations, the man had asked him if there was anything he wanted. Without thinking about it, Itami had replied:
"I want to go through the Gate." And he really did. This was definitely the most exciting thing that had happened in his entire life. If a whole new fantasy world couldn't cure his ennui, then he was doomed.
"Your bravery is truly a credit to the JSDF, Lieutenant Itami," the Prime Minister praised, recovering from the surprise of a junior officer seriously taking him up on his question. "I'll have a word with General Hazama; he'll be sure to find a space for you in the expedition."
At that point, Itami froze. He really hadn't meant to speak. Or he had, but only to say some banality, like "I am only happy to have been able to serve Japan." No, instead he had to end up actually asking for something. From the Prime Minister. Who was then going to speak to a Lieutenant General.
There was a simple rule that Itami lived by in the army. Attract as little attention from superiors as possible. That goes ten times over for generals. Hell, no soldier wanted a general to be personally interested in them, unless maybe they're family. Plus, even if Hazama wasn't pissed off by this situation, Itami would probably end up cooling his heels and fetching coffee as a lowly lieutenant who's part of the command staff.
So the next day when he got his orders to show up to the newly established Gate Expeditionary Headquarters, and left waiting for hours outside some adjutant's office, he wasn't overly optimistic.
Then he was finally called in, handed new rank tabs, and told to immediately meet the recon battalion commander. The platoon leader for the third recon team had had to have an emergency surgery, and now Itami would be taking that command. Itami was pretty excited by the whole thing; leading a recon unit in a new world was about as awesome as it gets.
His optimism faded quickly.
The Gate Expeditionary Force, or GEF, was a clusterfuck in the making. The Diet seemed to be heading in the direction of deciding that a region at least matching that of Japan's borders would be seized, likely in the belief or hope that the Gate effect was location specific, rather than that any place could have a Gate from any other place. That meant that the JSDF would be expanding, and would include a new army.
Of course, that army had to be drawn from somewhere, and so all the other, existing armies were contributing with the greatest portion coming from the Eastern Army. But the other armies were still needed; China was being particularly belligerent, and though there had been no critical incidents or attacks, Japanese and Chinese planes were frequently intercepting each other over disputed territories.
The biggest problem was that there wasn't the equipment for the army to expand so quickly, and the existing armies had successfully argued they needed the most modern equipment to face a real army, the Chinese.
That meant the GEF was underequipped with aging, mothballed gear. Itami's platoon, for example, had a nice modern Komatsu LAV, a beat-up barely bulletproofed Type 73 Shin truck which still had Iraqi sand in it, and a Toyota Humvee clone. No unit that small should have three different vehicles to worry about, three different types of maintenance and spare parts.
Hell, even the most basic part of an infantryman's kit, the rifles, were a joke. They were armed with Howa Type-64s, a series of rifle last produced before 1990, some of which were literally older than Itami. They'd given the things a lot of tender loving care after getting them, but the guns were old, overcomplicated and had a reputation for breaking under serious use.
Against primitives it would probably be fine. But even if everyone else seemed to be able to, Itami couldn't ignore the fucking magical girls. Well, boys too. But in spare moments he'd caught the news coverage of that beautiful blonde devil, seen the recovered images of her tearing helicopters apart as if they were made of cardboard, remembered what it was like to face her in battle. He didn't believe his vehicles would fare any better than the helicopters, and she seemed the sort to take particular pleasure in instantly destroying isolated detachments of scouts like Itami's.
Command wise things weren't going well either. The Americans, justified by their casualties and the legitimate heroism they had displayed in coming to Tokyo's aide, were going to be participating in the expedition and taking a portion of its spoils. Already the US-Japanese governments were signing treaties, Japanese-US business partnerships forming. But it wasn't a seamless cooperation.
Japan was in nominal charge, and was supplying a full half of the twelve thousand troops in the initial wave. But the US was matching that, not only in troops sent, but in rank of commanding officer. Lt. General Richards, previously in charge of the US Marine Corp's 3rd Expeditionary Force, was in charge of the American contingent. The man was a disciple of Mattis' aggressive maneuver and counter-insurgency tactics, and had overseen the battle for Fallujah in Iraq and Helmund Province in Afghanistan.
It seemed Richards was already disagreeing with Hazama's strategy. He was being respectful for an American, but to the more reserved Japanese they might as well have been having screaming matches and rumors were already circulation among the troops.
Hazama was a great administrator, but perhaps too much enamored of outdated tactical thinking for this sort of war. He believed in having relatively safe advances. Take, fortify, pacify, proceed; that was his motto. If possible, he'd have every engagement at stand-off distances, using copious amounts of artillery and air support.
In contrast, Richards was a warrior. He wanted to get up in the enemy's face and rip it off, keeping a high tempo and aggressive action. Hazama saw that as needlessly reckless and risky for the troops. Major General Steton, the top US Army officer, agreed with Richards. He though just mostly believed the Japanese to be untested, and had a subconscious sense of American superiority in general. Steton liked Richards, and thought that he was the perfect man to be leading from a military sense, considering Hazama's appointment the sort of political move that damaged military effectiveness.
Worst of all, it was starting to infect the interactions between the US and Japanese services.
So between politicians already cutting up a pie they didn't even have yet, aging dissimilar equipment and generals more disdainful of each other than the actual enemy, Itami was feeling pretty down. But he never doubted their eventual victory, just as he'd never doubted his own capabilities. His radio buzzed with a general announcement.
"Ah! Lieutenant, they're moving through the Gate!" Sergeant Major Kuwahara said excitedly. He had a tablet out, connected to a nearby wifi and was streaming the news. The station had an embedded reporter with the lead tank company. Ironically, the best way for Itami to stay current on what was happening at the front was through the news.
His own unit, part of the Japanese Reconnaissance contingent, was fifth in line behind the Japanese then US tanks and Japanese then US mechanized infantry. As much as Special Forces or Recon might be more famous, for shear firepower the armored units were far better. Odds were they'd either have taken the Gate or failed entirely before Recon got through.
"Turn the volume up, Sergeant Major," Itami said.
"Sure, Lt." He turned up the volume, and they peered at the small screen as the news station cut to the reporter's feed.
"We're about to go through the Gate, we've just been given the order to advance," the reporter excitedly said. He had the look of a military otaku who's dream had come through. The view showed the interior of the Gate, a strange shadowy space with a double line of Type 74 tanks moving through at a decent speed. The reporter's was the third in line.
"Now, I'm told that we're using smoke to cover our movement on the other side, so the view may be obstructed. OK, we're moving through the Gate, and I cannot wait to see what's on the other side!" he exclaimed. The tank transited, and came out into a scene from hell.
The area was covered in smoke. Fires spilled out over the grasses. Guns fired on full auto, and the camera caught the impact of an explosive shell on a stretch of defended palisade. The tank and its neighbor slewed off to the right, the camera coming about to look to the side just in time to catch the other tank exploding.
"Enemy anti-tank weapons, rear!" Itami heard one of the tank crew shouting as the reporter swore in shock. A secondary explosion went off and the reporter's tank rocked sideways as the turret slammed into it. The inside view of the tank showed the crew rattling about like peas in a pod.
"Holy shit, holy shit!" the reporter was screaming.
"Shut up, reporter!" the tank commander cried, slapping him. "Anyone injured? No? Gunner, traverse the turret and fuck them up!" Quieter, the reporter started to babble.
"Our neighboring tank was just hit with some sort of anti-tank weapon. It may be action from the so called magical-girls. I doubt there were survivors," in the background, Itami could see the commander shooting a look at the reporter of incredulous rage; a civilian had no right to be saying that kind of shit in the middle of combat. "Clearly, the enemy is far more dangerous than their primitive equipment would demonstrate."
On the outside of the tank the camera continued to traverse and switched views, catching the growing number of immobilized and destroyed vehicles. Itami closed his eyes and briefly prayed. He prayed for the dead, for himself, and that there weren't more of those magical girls. Then he tilted his head back, and wondered not for the first time:
What the everloving FUCK was I thinking.
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Overall, the retreat went about as well as could be expected. Marius' men had been infected with the general panic. Then he rallied them, screamed them into obedience and reminded them that they had prepared for this, established supplies, and could make it away safely. He ended up getting away safely with not only his own regiment, but a neighboring cohort of axemen and a mixed cohort of sword-and-bucklers and crossbowmen, a total of about two thousand men.
As planned, he'd left his light cavalry behind with Aisha's squad until the last moments, ensuring that the captives wouldn't be menaced by panicked Imperials or deserters. The horsemen chased off a band of nihilistic marauding soldiers, maddened with fear, before rejoining the general retreat. You and the Storm-Hawks took the very rear, being most capable of seeing off pursuit.
It seemed though that the Japanese and Americans didn't have the appetite for more combat that night. Between the extensive damage you'd inflicted, the risk of more casualties, and a lot of Imperials to capture or mop up in the area, the allied forces stayed put until daylight. By that point Marius and his command had reached the hilly region, and should make it safely to the Coan Forest and eventually Italica.
You'd done a bit of rapid scouting of the rest of the Imperial retreat, staying close enough to the ground to avoid radar and anti-air. It seemed as though Crassus was in charge, and Pontius was by his side. You didn't see Julius, but his personal pennant was still there so he was likely among the injured. Overall, you estimated that about thirty-five thousand Imperials had rallied, including the majority of the Legions. A similar number, mostly mercenaries and auxiliaries, had deserted and would likely turn to banditry or try and return to their homes.
Overall, the Imperial army was at less than forty percent of the strength it started at.
As for gains, well… You can assume your reputation with the general army is improved; you know Marius is amazed at how you managed to keep his unit together and alive. For pure combat effectiveness, you've figured out how to destroy tanks with much greater efficiency, and Sasha's squad has demonstrated a distinct proficiency in anti-armor action.
For enemy losses, you counted two tanks and a SPAAG destroyed, five tanks and a SPAAG rendered combat ineffective. They'd likely be able to repair most of the immobilized tanks without too much difficulty, but it had certainly served to stop the advance which was what you were going for.
Fuck you, Being X. That wasn't even close to enough to phase me, you thought darkly.
Now you just needed to decide what to do next…