(Warning, from now on explicit War Crimes will be committed. You have been warned)
Little Austria, Little Vienna
Miho
March 15
Miho laid on the beach relaxing for the first time in a month and a half, the stress of running a campaign was much harsher then she had predicted. The other girls from the army were either in the capital town or were at the beach with her.
She blocked out the noises of the other girls as her hair formed a small light brown halo around her face. She was still wearing her Ooarai uniform as she kept her eyes closed. Her mind was running amok as she thought of everything that happened this month.
Even with how aggressive and decisive the battle had been the losses on both sides had been kept to a relatively low number compared to Maho and her forces. They had lost around 25,000 soldiers and the Bonples had lost around 40,000 but around 160,000 Bonple soldiers had been captured. It was nothing to scoff at but she did thank whatever higher being there was that she hadn't needed to see more death.
She felt the air shift around her as someone sat next to them, followed by a few others.
"Miho, do you ever feel that this world is slowly changing," Saori asked in a somber and serious voice. Something that a month or two ago she would have said was abnormal but had now become more and more common.
"In what way?" Miho cracked open her eyes to notice the entire Anglerfish team sitting with her.
"I think Saori meant to say that this world is becoming more and more... real as time goes on" Mako pitched in with the other girls nodding at her words
"I guess it is feeling less and less virtual the longer we stay in here," Miho answered
"I'd say its because we've been living in this world for so long." Miho continued stretching slightly as she sat up.
"It would make sense, after all, we are suppose to live in this world for another 5 years," Hana mentioned
"Make sure you get some relaxation time, I don't think we'll get much of this in the coming years." Miho looked out towards the beach.
She saw hundreds of girls playing and swimming around, they looked so relaxed and happy nobody could have hardly believed that a month ago they were embroiled in war, fighting for their life... or should she say their virtual life. This thing was messing with her head more than she realized.
Shaking her head she looked out towards the girls once more, how many of them would make it to the end, would any of them make it? Looking towards Saori, Hana, Mako and Yukari she gave them a bit of a tight smile.
"Do you girls know one of the worst things of being commander?" Miho randomly asked
"Having to command so many girls?" asked Saori
"Trying to be victorious?" Yukari wondered
"Lack of sleep?" Mako mentioned
"Being forced to kill?" Hana asked
Shaking her head Miho stood up and looked at one of the groups of girls who were playing together.
"No, it's seeing some girls one day and not seeing them the next... knowing you're the reason why their no longer there." Miho's tone was dripping with sadness
"Ordering some girls to attack a solid defensive line knowing that most of those girls are never going to come back even if deep down you know it's necessary." Miho watched the lake's calm nature.
She felt a pair of arms surround her, then another and before she knew it she was being hugged by all the girls.
"... We're sorry you have to go through this Miporin" Saori whispered with the other girl's acknowledging.
Shaking her head she sighed " what am I doing, this is supposed to be a fun small vacation for us and I'm here brooding, bringing down the mood"
"Everyone needs some brooding Miho" Hana mentioned
"I guess your right, you girls on ahead and play. I need to make a small phone call, I'll join you guys afterwards." Miho mentioned, her light brown eyes shinning a bit more than before.
The other girls made their way towards the beach where a volleyball game was happening. Telling her to join them afterwards, which she promised to do.
A soft sigh escaped her as she made her way to the command tent, even though she had been brooding for most of this trip she already felt the stress leave her and she entered a more relaxed posture.
Perhaps going through things within her own mind was an effective way to rest and not let it build up. Entering the tent she moved over to the radio and grabbed the phone attached to the large radio.
Turning to one of her soldiers she timidly asked "Can you get me Anzio's signal"
A quick nod and a turn of a few knobs resulted in her hearing the Duce's voice " Hey Miho, what can I do for you."
"I just wanted to let you know were going to arrive a day or two later than predicted. I want the army to have a bit more of R&R"
"sure no problem, could you stop by Little Rome, I want to have a meeting with our staff together so we're all on the same page."
"Alright, see you soon Anchovy"
Putting the phone back into place she looked at the girl who was still sitting in the tent "Go have some fun out there with your friends."
Looking at her with wide eyes she spoke " thank you, will do"
Miho smiled as she left the tent and went towards her friends playing volleyball, perhaps she could temporarily forget about everything. Just enjoy the day as if she was still just a high-school student and not the leader of a nation of three schools who's currently at war.
—
Little Austria, Little Vienna
Miho
March 17
Miho watched as the girls gathered up once more, getting ready to get on the train. Miho's eyes were light and bright, shining in the sun. Her shoulders relaxed as she scanned the crowd.
She watched the tanks being set up on the trains and checked her pocket watch that she had received as a gift from Yukari. They would be boarding the train in an hour, it would mark the end of their little vacation that they had.
Little did Miho know that an hour later when she would board the train and start to head towards the Anzio Empire that she would barely miss a small army of bonple soldiers who had been marching non-stop to catch up with her.
—
Little Russia, Near Little Moscow
Katyusha
March 19
Katyusha looked at the 50,000 prisoners below her, they had been captured by her forces during the invasion of Bonple.
"I Katyusha has decided to be merciful to you and instead of sending you to the gulags will give you a generous choice of joining the great and powerful Red Army. Perhaps this way you may atone forever fighting against me."
"If you join our army you will be granted the rights of the soldier and will join a great Union that crush all that stands in its path, If you don't join then you'll be sent to the gulag and will help the Union by working for it."
Stepping down from the podium she had Nonna lift her up on her shoulders and march away, the KGB guards sorting out the prisoners who are joining and who are not joining.
—
Little Benelux, Near the Kuromorimine-Confederation border
Erich
March 19
Erich was in the air once more, she was commanding 12 planes and had been promoted. She was the second leading ace for Kuromorimine and the fourth in the war with her 10 kills. She had marked each kill on the side of her cockpit with a skull.
She was around 4000 feet in the air with her Bf109 E, the feeling of liberation while being in the sky was always refreshing. She was practically always itching to get into the air, it had become as keen to breathing for her.
She was interrupted from her thoughts when one of her squadmates radioed in
"Enemy plane spotted at 10 o'clock. Seems like 8 fighter planes and 8 bombers, what should we do Kommandant?"
She knew who it was, it was a young girl called Ichika a recruit that had arrived at the beginning of the month and was on her first mission.
"Start forming up, we'll dive on them and take out their fighters first. Remember what you were taught and let your instincts take over."
Calming and clearing her mind she watched the enemies getting closer and closer towards her squad. She spotted the planes, they were St-Gloriana's, specifically they were 8 *Hurricane's and 8 *Wellington's.
"Dive now!" Erich yelled
All 12 planes began to dive towards the enemy, each one of them picking a fighter as they closed in towards the enemy.
Having just spotted them the planes began to turn only for bursts of fire to come from each of the planes. Erich waited a bit longer in till she was in what she called prime firing distance and sent out a burst of machineguns.
The green tracers from the ammo flew towards the plane and peppered the front of it. Within seconds the plane had pitch-black smoke and started spinning downwards. Another skull that would need to be added she thought to herself.
Turning her plane around she saw that 4 out of the 8 fighters were already going down. She also noticed that one of her planes was spewing some smoke as it tried to limp back to base.
Pushing the throttle to the end she saw some machinegun fire from the bomber zip past her plane as she went after another one of the Hurricanes going after one of her squadmates. Lining the plane up she pressed the fire button on the joystick and saw the bullet's pepper the cockpit of the enemy plane.
Suddenly a stream of fire peppered her plane as she dived downwards while turning her plane to her left.
"I got one of them on my tail!" She yelled out
"Pull up, I'll get it as it follow's" one of her Wingman called Himara called out
Pulling the joystick back she felt the plane pull up and heard more machinegun fire following after her.
"I got him, he's on fire" Himara called out
Turning her plane around she did a quick check on the damage, she had a few holes in your wing but that was about it. Turning towards the bombers she saw that the last two fighters were too damaged and were limping back to base.
Firing some shots she saw the bomber start to list to one side and drift out in a steady dive. The rest of the bombers were shot down in quick succession and they began to make their way back to base.
—
Little Italia, Near Little Venice
Anne
March 20
Anne had "borrowed" a local horse and used it to ride in front of the entire army in hopes of catching Miho while she was in Little Venice. Sadly she seemed to have arrived too late.
She was in the forest right now taking a small break, feeding and watering the horse as she took a small rest. She didn't think that horseback riding would be that difficult and would make her bum that sore. Clearly, she had been proven wrong on both accounts.
She had just untied her horse and resettled it when two girls came out of the small dirt path and saw her. She recognized them as Anzio soldiers and quickly put her hands up as they started yelling at her to get down.
Slowly getting herself down she spoke as clearly as possible " I just want to meet with Miho. It's an emergency"
They kept their gun trained on her as one of them forced her forward as they grabbed the horse and made their way towards her. Arm's behind her back she was marched over to the town where she was put in a cell.
The whole time she repeated her message of needing to see Miho. The Anzio soldiers called the Duce to inform her of the situation and to pass the information to Miho.
—
Little Italia, Little Venice
Anne
March 21
Anne had been subjugated to interrogation after interrogation by what looked to be some intelligence officers. She had slept in the cell her letter still safely tucked away as she had repeated her demands over and over again. She wanted to meet Miho in a meeting to discuss some sensitive information.
She hoped that the army hadn't jumped the gun yet and tried to do anything stupid. All she could do is wait in her dark cell and wait for a response.
—
Miho
Miho waited inside a small meeting room, there were 5 guards in the room, two of them were right behind her and two were at the door with one being where the turncoat, as the intelligence department had briefed, her would be sitting.
She had apparently been adamant about meeting her in person, something about sensitive information that could change everything.
The girl entered the room, she was caked with dirt, dust and seemed to not have had a good shower in what must have been for more than a month. Her khaki coloured uniform had faded and been covered in so much dirt that it looked more like splotches of grey, light brown and dark brown.
She made her way and sat down in front of Miho and introduced herself.
"It's nice to meet you Miho, my name is Anne Takahashi you can call me Anne though"
" I heard you had wanted to talk to me about something important?"
"yes but first I want you to know that I am one of the new Marshals of Bonple after Jajka's death. I was specifically tasked by her to speak to you about the information I am about to reveal."
She dug into one of her breast pockets before pulling out a letter.
"This contains information that some of our spies had discovered during the end of the invasion. I believe this to be crucial and important enough to risk being shot for it."
Miho grabbed the letter and gently opened it before pulling out the letter and reading it.
"You do know that we'll need to double-check this information right?" Miho asked the girl in front of her
"Of course I wouldn't expect anything different from the great Miho. You shouldn't just trust your enemy on a whim."
"You also know that as angry as it would make me find out this information is true there's not much we will be able to do for now."
"What do you mean, you could team up with St-Gloriana and the Confederation and crush Kuromorimine. "
Miho sighed as she rubbed her temple, already running through dozens of plans to properly prepare for war with Pravda. "the fact is that we simply can't turn around and declare war against Kuromorimine because Pravda would then declare war on us. We would be crushed in a two-front war where St-Glorianna and the Confederation would be unable to support.
This is not even mentioning the fact that the Commonwealth would be in a worse position fighting two main powers with the Imperial sun most likely joining in afterwards and even with saunders help it would most likely end with them losing."
"... What am I suppose to do with the girls under my command, I've got about 50,000 girl's relying on me. I can't just wander around and does this mean you would never attack Kuromorimine?" Anne asked a bit of desperation slipping into her voice as she rambled a bit.
"No, I simply mean that at this time attacking Kuromorimine is suicidal and with your girls, you could always join us. I understand if you don't wish too but it would allow us to work together to someday bring both Pravda and Kuromorimine down."
"What do you mean join you? I don't think I could relinquish command of the girls."
"No no no, you would be like another army commander in the army... something akin to the Bonple Army inside of the Ooarai army."
"We could work something out" Anne agreed, it would give her girls the best chance available and they would retain some level of autonomy.
—
Little Italia, Little Venice
Anne
March 22
Anne rode her horse in front of her army as the girls followed her, they would be boarding another train heading to Little Vienna as soon as the Bonple army Swore allegiance to both Bonple and Ooarai. Anne for the first time in 2 months had taken a shower and been able to wear clean clothes once more. She had even had the time to properly stitch the correct rank onto her shoulders.
They would be reequipped and retrained with their new equipment, and in the end, they would be assigned to help defend against Pravda. Something Anne was 100% for considering they had also invaded her land and she wanted to get a bit of revenge.
—
Little North Sea
Jannicke
March 23
Jannicke was an admiral for Viggen High, the Swedish inspired school inside the Kuromorimine Reich. She was one of the minor Admiral's for Viggen, she was in command of 4 destroyers and her flagship a light cruiser.
She had just spotted one of St-Gloriana's ship, a lone battlecruiser that was off the coast of Little Sweden. She had ordered her ship's to get into combat readiness as she had her fleet screen the ship ever so slightly.
The enemy battlecruiser started turning and Jannicke ordered her ships to charge, if her destroyers could get within torpedo range then they would be able to sink the St-Gloriana ship, otherwise, they would be at the bottom of the ocean.
The first salvo from the Battlecruiser was fired as it splashed around the light cruiser, the respiratory shots also missed as the 5 ships continued charging forwards. Another salvo was shot this time against the destroyers, 4 shots were fired on two destroyers.
One of the shots hit the middle of the destroyer sending it up in a blaze with the middle of the destroyer lifting up out of the water before shattering and sinking down to the bottom of the sea within 2 minutes.
The 4 ships left continued to close the gap as their shots proved ineffective against the battlecruiser. Another salvo and another destroyer disappeared beneath the waves, this continued for another 5 minutes in which out of the 5 ships only two remained, a destroyer and the light cruiser.
The destroyer started to turn to the left as torpedoes were dropped in the water before it did the same on the other side. A volley of shots was fired and this time hit the cruiser, two shots landed in the front of the ship and an extra one landed directly where Jannika had been stationed.
The cruiser began sinking from the front as Jannika stumbled out of the command room, scratches all over her body as her uniform was scorched and ripped. The room itself was on fire, she could hear some screams coming from the room as the alarm bell rang on the ship as the crew desperately tried to put out the fires, looking out she saw the torpedoes hit dead on the battlecruiser, almost immediately it started listing to one side.
The destroyer was shot at with a shot hitting and causing a fire but not destroying it, meanwhile the front of the cruiser was practically underwater as Jannike followed her fellow sailors as they made their way to the lifeboats.
One final volley was shot at the cruiser in which its front was once more hit and an explosion could be seen as the front part ripped off. Jumping into a lifeboat Jannike tried to get as many girls into the boat before releasing it into the ocean and paddling away from the boat.
The battlecruiser flipped over and began to sink as the destroyer made its way over to pick up survivors from the destroyers and the cruiser.
—
Little Russia, Unknown Location
KGB officer
March 24
In front of the KGB officer was what was deemed as unacceptable prisoners, be they war prisoner (Bonple) or political prisoners (Kebab & West High). They had all been lined up and given shovels to dig a 6-foot long trench.
There were around two thousand of these girls considered undesirables and a danger to the union. They had just finished their digging as all at once the KGB officers raised their pistols and aimed it at the girls and fired over and over again in till each girl was lying in the ditch. Reloading their pistols they made their way to the trench and began filling it up, shooting any girl that moved.
—
Little Germany, Little Cologne
Erika
March 25
Erika was sitting with Maho, Entra, Koume and a few other generals who had proven themselves during the invasion of Bonple. They were currently on a balcony with fancy food being served to them and some fancy drinks. It was a small restaurant that was beautiful in almost every aspect, it was on the side of the Little Rhine that crossed the city and allowed you to look onto the river as it passed and stare at all the amazing buildings and their architecture.
The restaurant was called Konrad and served classic german food like *Schneitzals, *Himmel und Aad, *Meittbrotchen and other types of german food. It was a nice relaxing situation as everyone talked to each other, joking around and releasing all that tension that had built up.
Erika was glad that she got to hang out with her best friend and her idol Maho, Maho had even alluded to perhaps creating some metals to rewards soldiers and generals for their efforts in combat.
Taking a bite out of her steak Erika couldn't see any possibilities of them losing this war, not with a Non-aggression pact with Pravda and rumours of an already divided confederation, some of which don't even wish to fight.
—
Little USA, Little Fort Brag
Alisa
March 26
Alisa was sitting in her General's office, she had been granted a year to train her girls into fighting shape, she had free reign on how she wished to proceed with it. She was also still the head of the Intelligence department and so even if she is swamped with extra work it granted her a special ability to make certain divisions that are more experimental. She already had two airborne divisions and a special forces division.
Grabbing the Newspaper that had just arrived she read the title of it out loud.
"Phoney war"
Reading the article over she found herself scoffing at it as the reporter stated "the quietness on the western front would make one think that there was no war in Little Europe". It had even brought up the point that peace could be made as both sides seemed unwilling to fight.
Throwing the newspaper in the bin Alisa disregarded it and continued sifting through the reports she had to read over. Including the training report of this week for her entire army which was getting close to 250,000 girls.
—
Little Italia, Little Rome
Anchovy
March 28
Anchovy was holding a spare rifle that had been passed to her and she had her *Barretta pistol holstered. She was in the Palazzo del Quirinale. The building was occupied by the PVA which had found out about a plot to overthrow the Duce and had secured the Palace.
The Arditi special forces were currently trying to fight through the rebels who were following the president and the Queen of Anzio. The rebels numbered around 5,000 girls strong, most of which were considered untrained, meanwhile, her forces of loyal members were 800 PVA and 2,500 Arditi soldiers expertly trained for Urban combat.
One of the windows nearby shattered as Anchovy hugged the wall and peeked out into the darkness of the night and fired her rifle. It was early morning around 3:00 am and she knew that Miho and a small contingency of her forces should be arriving later today. Most likely ignorant of this insurrection.
Pulling the bolt back Anchovy huffed in frustration, the bastards had made her first battle that she was a part of about an insurrection against her leadership. Pulling the trigger she gave a self-satisfied smile as one of the rebels fell.
Her hair was a long messy wave of green as her classic twin drill hairstyle was certainly less important than fighting with her bodyguards who had fortified the palace. They had even managed to smuggle two machinegun's which was how they had been holding off a force that outnumbered them almost 2:1.
Her precious black cape flowed behind her as she switched window to window. Firing a shot while yelling war cries and egotistical phrases at the rebels while at the same time she could be seen singing some of Anzio's marching songs such as *Funiculi Funiculi, *Le Canzone del Piave, *Giovinezza, *Inno dei Ballilla, *Canto Degli Arditi and *Facetta Nera.
Her shots rang true throughout the battle as the police around her fought off wave after wave of rebels even after they ran out of machinegun ammo. The Arditi on the other side of the block could hear her voice as it rang out throughout the night inspiring hope in the special forces as they fought guerrilla fighters.
Soon the sun began to rise as Anchovy could be found in the entrance of the building leading another counterattack against the rebels and forcing them back across the courtyard to take refuge in their captured buildings.
The sounds of gunfire were suddenly muffled as the noise of a tank engine could be heard rolling through the town. Anchovy prayed to whatever god there was in this world to have that tank belong to Miho.
She set herself up next to the door and turned the corner firing her pistol, she had run out of ammo in her rifle long ago. She smirked once more as she saw one of the enemy girls fall to her shot. The courtyard was littered with bodies with the grass having been turned read and the beautiful fountain was now bleeding red.
The uniform of the rebels was a dirty brown, it made her gag with how terrible the uniform looked. She reloaded her shot as she heard the sound of a machinegun and cannon start to fire as she began singing once more, her way of boosting the morale of all the girls who had willingly locked themselves in the palace with her planning to fight to the death.
Peeking out once more she saw the rebels running away deeper into the city as machinegun fire with green tracers followed them. A loud cannon shot was heard and an explosion down into the city could be heard.
Suddenly Miho who was sticking outside of her tank as always was seen in her Panzer IV D driving down the road with a group of Arditi riding the tank an Anzio flag flying behind the tank.
"Miho just in time" Anchovy called out
Miho smiled shyly "seems like it Anchovy"
White flags soon came out as more and more Ooarai tanks and infantry shifted the numbers into a ridiculously outnumbering the rebels and with unchallenged tank support. The rebels came out with hands in the air as the president and Queen were found among them.
She would need to sentence the girls appropriately and have a speech ready for tomorrow.
—
a few hours later in a meeting with Miho
Sitting at a table in the palace with ICI agents stationed throughout the building and PVA guarding the outside of the room, the room itself was empty as the information had been considered too classified.
" So Miho, I would like to first thank you for assisting me with the rebels this morning." Anchovy genuinely thanked Miho and hugged her before sitting back down.
"No problem at all, we are allies Anchovy although perhaps our nation's relationship could be described as siblings." Miho had timidly accepted the hug and gratitude showed by Anchovy
"We need to discuss a few things about the war but I have a feeling this information that you've deemed this classified should be discussed first" Anchovy inquired from Miho her hair was still a mess as the rebels had all been rounded up only an hour before.
"Yes, I've recently discovered and confirmed thanks to the ICI agents that Kuromorimine had made a deal with Pravda to sell us out. I was just approaching you wondering that when I do go at war with Maho that you'll stand beside me."
"of course Miho, I'll stand beside you if you decided to go to war tomorrow," Anchovy promised
Miho sighed in relief and said "What did you originally call this meeting for"
"It was to inform you that Anzio would officially join the fight on May 21 against the Allied powers, that being the Commonwealth and Confederation. Unless you wish for Anzio to stay out of the war."
"No no, we should keep the pretense that nothing is wrong here. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"
"I was gonna request some reinforcements for Little Africa but you better keep yours on the continent. Instead, do you think we could do some training?"
"How would you feel if I brought some Bonple soldiers that have joined us on our crusade for revenge?"
Anchovy gave a smug smirk and said "I would love to have them join us. Should we start getting in contact with the allies?"
"No, we need to win against them to gain some bargaining chips for negotiations."
They continued talking about tactics, strategy and the problems with the rebels before going out to eat and continuing the talk with how to act with the traitors.
—
Word Ledger
Hurricane: a British plane with 12 machineguns and considered a great bomber killer but not as good of a fighter killer.
Wellington: a British strategic bomber made to bomb a large area with multiple bombs.
Schneitzals: Thin slice of fried meat
Himmel und Aad: Mashed potatoes mixed with apples giving it a sweet taste
Meittbrotchen: Diced raw pork that is served with salt and black pepper.
Barretta: the main Italian pistol during WW2
Funiculi Funiculi: Anzio's marching song, original an Italian song about climbing up a mountain
Le Canzone del Piave: Song talking about how the Italian troops pushed the Austrian-Hungarians back in a heroic battle.
Giovinezza: A fascist song talking about the nationalism and youth of Italy. (I do condemn Fascism but the song is nice to listen too.)
Inno dei Ballilla: Talks about Nationalism and the pride of the Italian's. I can't find the information letting me know if it is fascist or not. (it was made in 1927 so probably a fascist song)
Canto Degli Arditi: A Fascist song that glorifies what the Arditti special forces did in WW1. Also talks about nationalism and pride in Italian soldiers.
Facetta Nera: A song talking about how the Italian soldiers freed slaves in Ethiopia and set them free and brought them to Italy for a new life. Considered a controversial song both during fascist Italy and nowadays.
Thank you for reading this chapter. There won't be too much action in the next few chapters as things die down a bit. Please leave a review, comment or constructive criticism it means a ton for me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter introducing you to what I'm gonna call the Phony War Arc. Have a good day.
Signed Irish ️
2020/09/27