The new Empire

by Glorty

after the Tokinada incident events changed for Ichigo, his whole life took a new turn when he finds out what really happened after Yhwachs defeat. What will the future hold for Ichigo? Only time will tell. A story about romance and betrayal, alliances and war

80. Chapter 80

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach! All credits go to Tite Kubo

Silbern Royal Office

***Next Day***

Ichigo had just gotten back to his office as he was previously at the harbor, where the battleship SMS Majestic was taken into dry dock as it had just arrived, severly damaged by the battle it partook in, but they did get a heroes welcome by the population who cheered for them when they sailed into the harbor.

Just prior to that Ichigo had been in a series of meetings, first with the royal court then with the chancellors and then another meeting with the O.D.K and then another meeting with the chancellors and Bambietta where the O.D.K attended directly to discuss the planned assault.

Tonight at around 00:00 the paratroopers would drop into Dominion territory, a total of 20.000 soldiers would make the jump at that time, the first landing force would arrive by the beaches, 9 hours later and 09:00 in the morning, and it was estimated that the true fight would begin between 12:00 and 15:00, but before that there was a bunch of things that needed to be done, and the majority of it relied on the paratroopers alone.

1. There was the issue of Dominion long range defences that would bombard the landing force, that needed to be dealt with, and the paratroopers got that job.

2. There was a road system created by the population of the Soul Society years ago, a dirt road to be precise, and there were many of them, these road were just as vital for the Dominion as they were for the Wandenreich, because these roads made it easier to use motorized vehicles to transport materials, resources and reinforcements from or to the beach. They needed to be captured and secured so that the landing force could rapidly move upwards.

3. The landing would take place on three beaches, and there was one thing these three beaches had in common, as there was a road system connected to each of them, hence why they were chosen, but the O.D.K also knew that the road system also connected to each other further up close to a village, which the Dominion held, that needed to be captured and secured so that the landing force can regroup with each other and reorganize at the village before pushing inwards.

4. The village was just as important for the Wandenreich as it was for the Dominion because it was their primary supply point to the beach defences, and it allowed a steady flow of reinforcements to the beaches, and they would not give it up without a fight, if the paratroopers captured it, the Dominion was sure to mount a counter attack before the landing force arrived en masse, so once they captured it they needed to dig in and hold it until reinforcements arrived.

5. An optional objective was given, as it was more of a target of opportunity, for if they noticed a possibility to take out any air defences they might encounter, then it would be possible for airships to assist them faster as airships would be deployed by bomber command to assist the landing forces before flying inwards, and if they needed to defend themselves against air defences then they'd already have plenty of job to do enroute to the target village which would take time and the paratroopers would be completely on their own, furthermore the usage of bombers were limited as long as there was air defences and wingmen would probably be limited in airspace.

So yeah, the paratroopers had their work cut out for them, and considering distance and all that, they had a really short time span to get it all done, especially considering that battles could last for hours if prolonged or if they get bogged down, additionally the O.D.K wanted the covert and black operations unit of the A.N.U to handle this matter but they were already busy doing intelligence and recon runs deep behind enemy lines, which only recently became sabotage to stop reinforcements from the Dominion base of operations where they deployed their troops through gargantas, as they blew up key bridges and blocked the roads to ensure that reinforcements from the base itself would be severly delayed.

So unit four of the A.N.U was already active and on the move but they prefered to avoid direct confrontation as they weren't in the best position to openly attack Dominion units, worst of all if a large scale unit comes in to reinforce the Dominion troops attacked by the A.N.U then they'd probably lose several fireteams as that's what they operated in, namely full fireteams meaning they operated in teams of four everywhere, the reason for this was that a fireteam of four soldiers were such a small unit that they were easy to hide and harder to notice then a whole platoon of 45 soldiers or a division of 25.000 soldiers passing through, that's not optimal for covert and black operations, so teams of four were just perfect.

So they had to rely on regular soldiers that was trained paratroopers, but then again the paratrooper units of the Wandenreich was quite skilled as they were trained in fighting while being completely surrounded and cut off, their entire baseline of training contradicted that of the regular Quincy G.I Joe, and they would live of the land itself if needed, as they were trained in doing so in case they were indeed cut off from their supply lines, forcing them to find food using alternate means.

The elite stürmarmee would also take part in the assault, as part of the landing force, as they had a shitty job aswell, as they needed to secure all three beaches using Hirenkyaku and avoiding the Dominion defences all together so that the main force could land safely along with the troop transports that carried vital supplies.

The SMS Royalty was the flagship of the fleet at this point, where the sternritters: H Elduin Loracyne, N Theun Steehouwer, Q Yorick Desrumaux, V Bralgan Lomathier, W Irphe Neumann, Z Valentin Aballon would all partake in this assault.

The cruisers possessed long range guns and was able to assist with counter artillery on the beaches, as the Dominion medium and short range artillery was well within their range as the cruisers possessed long range guns after all, so they could bombard the Dominion positions from a safe distance.

Furthermore the engineers had a lot to do, the Wandenreich couldn't advance troops without resources and materials, crosses were vital for weapons, food, clothing, drinkable water, medical equipment, tents and sickbays, watertanks with the capability to heat up water for warm showers for the troops that have been taken off the front, entertainment to ensure that the troops didn't lose morale for the troops that had been taken off the front, fuel for the vehicles and spare parts for their vehicles because they weren't invulnerable to damage or breaking down aswell as a lot more.

All of this had to be handed over to the soldiers on the front, the problem was that their headquarters in the east branch was located on the opposite end of a forest infested with hellspawn, and that headquarters, which also was a fortress, possessed a beacon that marked it clearly for the schatten, so resources could accurately be handed over there, it also possessed a makeshift airfield to support aircraft and airships alongside their harbor so the fortress was quite big.

Now this is where things got a bit complicated, because first of all, they needed to get the resources to the other side, of course an airdrop would work, or as they also had planned, to build a makeshift airfield inside the village as the village possessed fields that farmers worked on that the military could use to make these airfields, but transport aircrafts aswell as airships could only fit so much into them and there was still limited space on the makeshift airfield.

So the decision was made to build a railroad system from the beach to the village once it had been secured and the front moved further back, but that might not cut it either because ships can carry a lot that is true, but they aren't exactly speedy and they are unable to transport the materials needed to the front directly if the need for urgency arrives, aswell as the time it takes to unload the ships.

Furthermore they didn't want to risk putting enemy troops on the ships as prisoners, so a risky decision had to be made, they would have to connect the railroad from the front line village to the fortress itself, but that meant cutting through the infested forest.

If they moved through the forest directly they would be attacked by hellspawn on all sites while building the railroad, that's a fact, the amount of troops needed to protect them was unavaileble, and while it was possible to build a bridge over the forest the hellspawn would just climb up and attack the engineers on all sites again so that wasn't really much of an option, but there was a possibility to build under their feet.

A tunnel moving underneath the whole forest, stretching for miles upon miles, of course it was a lot more work but it was entirely possible, so that job fell to Kisuke and Tessai due to their capability to speed things up with Kido, and they'd fortify it using some fortress materials to secure the tunnel aswell, after all if it was reishified it was easy to rebuild it just in case some hellspawn could dig instinctively, but the research division presumed it was few of burrowing hellspawn, so a tunnel was the safest bet.

So a train delievering supplies directly to the front rear guard aswell as reinforcements was vital, and on their way back they could just load the prisoners up into the transport cars and then they'd take them to a prison camp the A.N.U unit three would use in the east branch, namely the detention unit who was already deployed in the east branch.

All the prisoners in the Wandenreich was moved to the east branch, atleast of those who was still alive after Ichigo's mass execution, where the bodies was probably in Hueco Mundo somewhere rotting, unless someone ate them, regardless the prisoners got the job to use the materials to build up a prison camp under tight surveillance by the A.N.U.

It was more preferable for the Wandenreich to move them there, for if some of them escaped, then they have escaped into a warzone, where they'd probably be killed by the Quincy rear guard unless the hellspawn got to them first, compared to having them escape into a populated Quincy town or village and having them harm the general population, so it was a safer approach.

And even if some of them were ordered killed they could just kill them in the east branch without worry, seeing as it was already oozing with Dominion troops ready to fight, so there'd be more bodies where they'd come from, after all they'd just dig a hole there and shove their dead bodies in there and burn them up or just close it, the east branch didn't really care as much as the Wandenreich did with having Dominion troops buried in their territory after all.

The east branch had a bunch of bodies from different speices in it anyways so how would a few hundred thousand if not a few million Dominion troops make a difference?

Furthermore the camps would be built with factories to supply the army with crosses and artillery for the war effort, it was rather ironic that Dominion troops would make weapons for the Quincy war effort, and it wasn't small scale either, the camp which was named Camp Regal was supposed to be able to house up to 500.000 prisoners by shoving as many as possible into already cramped prisoner barracks.

The camp would be built with tall walls around it aswell as a reishi razor wires on the top, held together by a reishi generator which also electrified the wires, the guard section would be inside the walls right behind the entrance, where a reishi razor wire fence would seperate the prisoner ground and the guard grounds.

But Ichigo also thought about how disappointed he was, because it turns out that he didn't get his royal flagship after all, there was also a probability that the vessel could be viewed as intimidation if used on state visits and could cause diplomatical problems, so they would probably have to use an unarmed ship as the official royal vessel, but while that was used the royal flagship would probably just rust away in the harbor which ensured that it was also a bigger waste of money due to maintainance and such, so it was proposed to use what was originally supposed to be the royal flagship as command ships for the fleet instead, also known as Admiral's Flagship, though a very limited number would be built.

The O.D.K, knowing that they had disappointed their monarch had made plans beforehand, and decided to make up the mistake by having Ichigo authorize the construction of something far heavier and far more lethal then a battleship, and they enlisted the research division to do it so it was bound to be something good as the most brilliant of minds from all fields were working on the project, including paladins to make certain spells for the machinery to use.

Ichigo got a look at the drawing and was so impressed he didn't even hesitate to authorize it's construction, it was tremendously big, and it was flying, and it could be compared to a flying fortress that was pretty close to being actually invincible, compared to that of the ship they were building, and with it's firepower, it was the ultimate weapon for suppressing hostile forces, and to lead an assault, and so far the research division would build it in the schatten as the entire project was deemed top secret, and the schatten was the most secret of places they could build it, and with the time difference, they could have the entire flying vessel nicknamed the RCV or Royal Command Vessel finished in well in time for the Dominion invasion, and if all goes as planned, just seeing it once might just make rebels think twice before rebelling, that's how terrifying it looked atleast on paper, and it would be even worse close up, the entire project was started primarily to see how far the research division could go in technological advances originally though, but we can take a look at that at a more appropriate time.

What was important to stress out was the economic costs of building it, it was so expensive that for now they'd keep themselves to one only because the whole project was so expensive that Uryu nearly got a heart attack, but the benefit of it was that it could be stored anywhere for safe keeping and it would prove optimal to use even if the royal family wasn't on board it to quell potential fullbring insurrections utilizing terror tactics, and if this along with WMD's didn't show the deadly and destructive capabilities of the Quincy war machine, then nothing would.

But Ichigo did wonder how it would play out for his soldiers in the field, the paratroopers were already getting ready for their jump, and the landing force were also getting ready to sail out as they still had some last minute preparations to finish, 300.000 Quincy regular soldiers would land on the beaches and would be reinforced over time, accompanied by 15.000 Stürmarmee troops, that's 100.000 soldiers for each beach with 5.000 stormtroopers, accompanied by the Gotei forces split into four sections, aswell as some units of Wing Bind who had been dispatched by the west branch as they had been freed up after the Dominion was kicked with their heads first and asses later out of the west branch.

That leaves the question, what about the Dhahe tribe? Well they dispatched 500 members of their own for recon and elimination of Hellspawn in the forest as they had plenty of experience with them, and their animal transformations were strong against them specifically, and the noise from the assault is definitely going to attract plenty of hellspawn attention.

The Gotei forces that was split into four sections were split in the following order.

1st, 2nd, 4th and 12 division was the command and support section, and was in charge of covert operations, support, medical assistance and command and was located in different areas, 1st was located in the Quincy headquarters with the 12th, 2nd would assist the paratroopers and join in on the airborne assault, this time commanded by Soifon who had been released, the 4th was at the headquarters but would later go to the village as part of the rear guard once they had secured it with other rear guard units.

3rd, 5th and 6th would accompany landing force one on beach one, before rejoining at the target village and assist the push inwards.

7th, 8th and 9th would accompany landing force two on beach two before rejoining at the target village and assist the push inwards.

10th, 11th and 13th would accompany landing force three on beach three before rejoining at the target village and assist the push inwards.

Ichigo himself would be in direct command of all Quincy forces and would use the gate of the sun to move to the Quincy headquarters later, Bambietta was his second in command and Aizen and Chad would also have their own commands, Chad was responsible for ensuring that the assault force was getting the reinforcements and supplies they needed and Aizen was in charge of protecting Fort Cardinal, which was the Quincy base of operations and their headquarters from hellspawn by linking up with the guard detachment, which was 500.000 strong, and guarding the edge of the forest on the the Quincy end, just in case the hellspawn decides to use a switcheroo and move the opposite direction instead.

That could potentially prove to become a disaster if they are caught ill-prepared or off guard, so it was a chance they didn't want to take, one of the royal aircrafts was also moved to Fort Cardinal to allow Ichigo to fly directly to the lines if needed, or just over the forest so he didn't have to fight his way through, so in that manner it was actually much faster to use an aircraft then Hirenkyaku as Ichigo would avoid combat and he had less to physically carry as any luggage he might have would be in the cargobay of the aircraft.

Furthermore a gate of the sun was moved to Fort Cardinal, to allow Ichigo to move easily between Fort Cardinal and Silbern whenever he pleased or needed to aswell, and it allowed for the transport of the seriously wounded away from Fort Cardinal to Silbern if it proved necessary depending on the circumstances, the fort did have a large medical ward and was capable of taking in a lot of soldiers, but if it became too many then Silbern would have to begin taking in soldiers aswell, and the numbers of casualties would definitely be high, be it dead or wounded.

Ichigo took one quick peek at his documents to ensure that their upgraded MTBs had arrived, or their Motor Boat Torpedo which would be handy inlands.

The new MTBs, unlike the old ones who only possessed two quad autoballistas for surface combat, was now upgraded, though it still possessed it's depth charge launcher, mine dispenser aswell as sonar, small radar, and four torpedo launchers for large scale ships, which the first version possessed, the new version also possessed a single front 155mm cannon with shortened barrel in a turret, meaning it was covered and protected, aswell as they replaced the two quad autoballistas with four twin autoballistas, two for each side which allowed it to fire at more targets simultaniously but at the cost of anti air firepower directed at a single target aswell as the capability to support six MG42s, three on each side.

The cannon looked a lot similar to the 105mm cannon on the LCM Monitor Mark V patrol craft primarily used during the vietnam war.

With it's current upgrade, and the main cannon, the small MTB could actually go toe to toe singlehandedly against a frigate class warship with just it's main gun and actually have a 50-50 chance at coming out on top, believe it or not, but this was because of many other factors aswell, the MTB was small, it was fast, and it was very manouverable, so it could easily outmanouver the weapons of a frigate if they are weary of it's movements and when it fires, which they normally would be in battle, and while the battle would be long, as they only possessed a single cannon, with right manouvers and fast speeds, they could shoot a frigate to the bottom of the ocean if they are patient, a destroyer will take damage from their main gun but considering it's armaments they'd have better luck in a group rather then single combat, but it was possible but I wouldn't try it.

Whilst having a similar appearance to the German E-boat from ww2, also known as Schnellboot, they were just small enough to enter the tight rivers where larger warships would struggle, the MTBs were a bit different then the E-boat on it's underbelly, as the E-boat possessed a round bottom, while the Wandenreich one possessed a flat one, decreasing it's depth underwater allowing it to access even more areas that would otherwise be inaccessible.

The MTBs primarily used ballast tanks and water pressure to keep themselves stable, the ballast tanks allowed the MTBs to sail on rough oceans without tipping over, this modification was to increase their lethality as they could pop up in a group from areas that was least suspected and swarm an unknowing enemy before they even knew what was happening, meaning they'd sink before they could even get their weapons ready.

The engine of the MTB was an inboard jet type, meaning it sucked in water and used an internal propeller to gain speed before spitting the water back out through a pipe at the rear which also functioned as a rudder, rather then the standard boat system as it was the most optimal solution for the flat bottom so there wasn't really any propellers to worry about in terms of depth and such, as the propeller was inside the boat, so if the propeller was damaged due to the ground, then the boat has definitely ran aground long ago.

Of course the Wandenreich did possess smaller boats that was bought from the civilian sector and militarized as normal patrol boats should they ever need them but from the looks of the MTBs would be more then enough for now as these rivers further inlands were rather big, although shallow in many areas, but it still wasn't a problem for the MTBs though, and the MTBs were much more preferred as the smaller boats were just normal speed boats with mounted manifested weapons and that's it, usually a MG42, sometimes they didn't even manifest a machine gun and used rifles instead, and they weren't armored or protected either, so the MTB were the only small armored and properly armed patrol craft the Wandenreich actually possessed.

Ichigo's biggest concern was that the only entrance viable enough for boats to pass through went through the infested forest, meaning that they'd probably have to fight their way through, and that guess alone wasn't a long shot, this fact caused Ichigo to frown deeply in concern, but it did put Ichigo's mind slightly at ease knowing that the autoballista was capable of injuring or killing hellspawn with it's powerful arrows, and the 155mm cannon would tear them to shreads, and they'd be moving through the river in a group, increasing their firepower severly.

So it was worth risk, besides there was no other choice if they wanted to have their MTBs inside, but another thing that concerned Ichigo was the fact that both the west and east branch had one thing in common with the Wandenreich, as they both possessed the same weather patterns, so if it was summer in the east branch, then it was summer in the Wandenreich aswell and the west branch.

And recently the temperature has started to drop fast, Sabrina was wearing thicker clothes to kindergarden, Bambietta was no longer wearing a miniskirt when she wore her uniform outside but rather changed into pants as her legs was getting cold, and meteorologist wasn't certain but they assumed that the temperature would drop below zero degrees celsius at night already this week.

Rime ice was already expected to be seen just in a few days, luckily the Wandenreich was prepared for this as the equipment belts of the soldiers carried fillings for their trench coats though to increase it's warmth inside their equipment belt during cold climates as they could put that in their trench coat right between the body and the internal chainmail accompanied by two pairs of two pieces of clothing to have between their Quincy shirt and their body aswell as underneath their pants, aswell as four pairs of wool socks and two pairs of combat gloves that allowed them to move their hands and fingers without restricting them whilst providing some warmth at the very least, aswell as two pairs of scarfs that was made in a circular shape and was stretchable, so that the soldiers didn't have to tie them or have longer scarfs then necessary as to avoid having the scarf attached to something, potentially killing the soldier in the battlefield.

But that only worked so much, if it got too cold they'd still freeze, but atleast they wouldn't freeze to death, this also meant that a constant supply of winter clothing was needed for the soldiers to carry underneath their uniforms as their winter clothing would inevitably wear out quickly, especially their direct winter clothing such as the winter clothing underneath their uniform and wool socks, so a constant supply was needed otherwise nature would kill all of Ichigo's soldiers itself.

Alternatively it was accaptable to take a whole set from the equipment belt from a deceased comrade in order to save your own life when you're fighting nature itself, as salvaging had a major role in terms of survival out in the field, if you couldn't get something you really needed you had to beg, borrow, steal or salvage whatever you could, otherwise you might not last long in a war and every soldier counts, that's why salvaging or taking from the deceased was viewed as accaptable regardless if it's a friend or foe, it wasn't like they would need it while being dead anyways.

Thinking about it, Ichigo did notice a small pattern there, because during peace time it was usually the normal weather, but when war broke out, history had a tendency to reveal an unusual cold winter, ww1 in 1916 was unusually cold, the early and harsh winter of 1941 during ww2, or the napoleonic wars in 1811 when Napoleon Bonaparte was set back by harsh winter, and why should this war be any different? Winter was already showing signs of coming in early.

But that didn't mean that the winter was a setback for the Quincies directly, the Quincies wore white barrets, white masks, white goggles, white uniforms, and white everything, and snow was white, so the average soldier would be able to blend nicely in with the environment during winter, but still, winter means cold weather, cold weather means water freezing, and freezing water means more alternative roads and no MTBs less they be frozen in a river or lake somewhere.

Ichigo also knew that some new reforms was made to the military, as every soldier had been trained in every way a Quincy could fight, they all had been trained that way since bootcamp, but now the military limited their options, as every soldier was a swordsman, shield bearer, bowman and rifleman aswell as everything else in between, spearmen were usually changed into riflemen as their rifles could function as a spear or club depending on how you wanted to use it and whether your bayonet was attached or not, however spears could be used behind a shieldwall barrier if needed due to their longer length or for ceremonial or flag reasons but that was about it.

The standard manifested equipment of the soldier was now regulated, and compromised of a bayonet sheathe with a bayonet in it, a cross chained to both their wrists, a rifle usually or in some rare cases an SMG, both with shoulder straps to allow the weapon to rest on their shoulders so the soldier didn't need to carry it by hand, the standard magazine pouch was also on their belts filled with SMG magazines fully loaded with reishi bullets, usually supercharged bullets, aswell as a single magazine inside their trench coats just in case they should want to switch from rifle to SMG for close quarter combat inside a building or whatever, aswell as a canteen for water or other drinkable stuff attached to their belts.

Usually the soldier would take out their armor from the equipment belt and wear it, as it provided a lot of protection in the field, especially in close quarter combat, though it was heavy and not optimal to use for ranged combat alone if you were standing still, but it could also save your life during a risky advance, despite it's medieval appearance it did cover a lot of their bodies.

As for the cross around their wrist, it was dual purpose as the military had decided to drop manifested swords and utilize reishi swords instead as the research division concluded that a sword made purely out of reishi was sharper and easier to adapt to various conditions then a manifested one which was always the same size and could wear out the cross easily, additionally the wrist cross would also be used for creating a bow for the Quincy to use it's abilities.

As for pistols, the regular soldier did not wear them, since it was easier and faster to switch to bow rather then pistol if you lost your rifle in combat, the rifle could be used for melee combat as it could function as a club or spear depending whether you had a bayonet attached or not, aswell as a potent ranged weapon, but if you lost it in melee combat and got some distance between you and the enemy, it was far faster and easier to just point your arm towards your opponent, create a reishi bow and fire off a few arrows then to go into a pistol holster, drag out the pistol, reach out your arm, take aim and then fire, as you'd probably be dead before you could even reach out your arm, now that makes a difference doesn't it? The bow gives the soldier the element of surprise compared to the pistol.

And a wrist cross around both wrists usually allowed the soldier to dual wield reishi swords aswell if they so prefered, as reishi swords were lighter and easy to carry aswell as sharper, so in short they carried melee weapons around their wrists aswell as bows in the shape of crosses, as for the backup crosses, they were quite handy in case a manifested weapon broke, as the cross broke with it, this ensured that they were well equipped in the field if they had already manifested equipment, or they could use them as sacrifical crosses, namely ammunition for the panzershreck and create a SPAR round or use them for bipods to stabilize the rifle or a scope to allow their rifle to become a sniper or anything military related, even binoculars was possible to manifest.

Additionally their crosses could also be used for spare parts, as there was one thing not yet mentioned about their MG42, because the MG42 had a high rate of fire, namely 1200 reishi bullets a minute, the same amount as the Ginrei Kojaku fired arrows at maximum capability, but the MG42 consisted of 2 manifested parts, namely the gun itself and the barrel, this was because both were essentially seperate entities.

The MG42 was manifested as it's original counterpart, as the sight was a locking mechanism, and by turning it slightly, the rear section where the reishi manipulator drum was aswell as the trigger would turn, exposing the barrel section, where they put in a manifested barrel before firing it, usually even before loading it, however there was a slight problem with the Quincy MG, as it's rate of fire was extremly high and manifested, meaning physical parts were exposed to the gigantic energy, which produced heat, and while manifested parts were of better quality then anything in the world of the living usually, firing for a prolonged time would cause the barrel to heat up.

Usually they didn't fire for that long as the MG usually ripped everything to shreds before it got to that point, but if worst comes to the worst, then first the barrel would start to smoke and heat could be seen coming off it, after a short while the MG would slow down on it's rate of fire and after that the barrel would begin to glow bright red, and after that was usually sparks and a broken barrel aswell as a broken cross.

That was where it's capability to easily replace the barrel was quite handy, as they could just click the sight on the rear part, drag it quickly away and the barrel would come out by it's rear end, allowing the soldier to take it out quickly without touching the hot part of it, and then they'd put another barrel in and lock it and then fire again, the whole thing could be done in just 3 to 5 seconds, making it very fast.

Although they didn't always wear manifested equipment unless they had a specific job or was in the field or there was any kind of danger around, when all was peaceful and safe and they didn't have any jobs they usually dispelled everything and put the crosses into their cross pocket as manifested weapons were just as heavy as the original thing, and it would be boring to carry it around when it wasn't needed as you could just manifest it again later when it was needed.

Looking at the clock, Ichigo figured it was about time to leave for him, so he left a message for Bambietta saying he had gone on ahead.

East Soul Society (Fort Cardinal)

***Few Hours Later***

Ichigo walked around outside the base, the Gotei, paratroopers, landing forces and the forces from the west branch were getting ready, they had decided to deploy the inks for now as they felt they were more suited for the situation at hand under the direct command of Bruno Bangnyfe, under normal circumstances Wing Bind would be kept out and a standard military force would have been ordered up as Wing Bind mostly dealt with protecting dragons and managing them, but the situation was far from normal and Wing Bind was instead called up as soldiers then enforcers.

The Quincy Wingmen would provide air cover and ensure air supremacy as the Quincies were more suited for air supremacy then the inks were, they were more suited for ground support roles, this was due to their tendancy to use spray paint to form their spells which took time, the pipers were more suited for air supremacy then the inks were.

The Dhahe tribe had already left with Aizen for the Hellspawn defensive line to begin their assault on the hellspawn directly as they wanted to start as soon as potentially possible.

Bambietta had already arrived prior and was walking just besides Ichigo as they did something unusual by the standards of the spiritual world which was noticed by many and pictures and clips were taken by soldiers who had volunteered to carry a camera and take pictures of the war as part of an agreement with the news outlets and the press, in some cases even recording it as the cameras were multifunction so it was recorded by film and pictures.

What Ichigo did was to essentially change the standard, as Ichigo, unlike anyone else before him in the spiritual world, actually went out to speak with the regular Quincy G.I Joe who was about to go into battle, and it wasn't the monarch speaking either, as Ichigo was just himself, smiling, laughing, shaking hands with the soldiers, wishing them good luck, cracking jokes that made the soldiers genuinely laugh.

Just prior to Ichigo's arrival he had ordered that ice cream be served to each and every soldier, regardless whether they were Quincy, Shinigami, Wing Bind or from the Dhahe tribe, not a big order actually as for many of these soldiers, it might just be the last time they ever eat sweets, and Ichigo was fully aware of that, but there was one thing worth noting that he did.

He went to his soldiers, and he introduced himself by the full name, prompting the soldier to do the same, then he chatted with them briefly, why did he do this? Well the answer lies in Ichigo's beliefs, though there were many beliefs Ichigo held, this one was the one that Ichigo refused to budge on no matter what people thought about him.

These men were going out on Ichigo's orders, they would fight this war on Ichigo's orders... His war, on his orders, they would die on his orders, they were seperated from their families on his orders, they would see their friends and potentially family if they had some in the field die in front of them on his orders, families would get death notices on his orders!

The Quincy military was simply too large to do this with every soldier and the assault would have many soldiers over time, so Ichigo couldn't do this to each and everyone, but once the opportunity arose, he would take it, for if these men were willing to fight, kill and die on his orders, then at the very least he should know their names and know a little bit about as many of them as he could, he even went as far as to telling each and everyone he encountered to come back alive, practically ordering it, despite the fact that Ichigo knew that not every soldier would be able to uphold that order.

But of course this also had different side effects that Ichigo was slightly aware of but never knew the full extent of it as he didn't think much about that part, it all had something to do with the psychological aspect about it.

Just the fact that their supreme commander, their leader and their monarch aswell as empress was willing to see them and speak with them caused a chain of psychological events to spin into action, especially since Ichigo was a monarch well liked and respected by both the people and the military as he made their lives a lot easier then what it was under Yhwach, aswell as much fairer, and that was reason for them to fight with all they had already.

They all knew how busy Ichigo was, but despite that he put them in his busy schedule and he took his time with them, he spoke with them, knew their names, and they got to know the monarch personally, and for them that was an honor, and honor that raised their morale and will to fight, inspiring his troops severly, because they might want to brag about this to the people back home, and with Ichigo's order to come back alive they wanted to live, but they also wanted to fight.

Ichigo's inspiration to the troops, the honor he granted them, the order to come back alive, it would make them fight harder in the field of battle, more ruthlessly, but also more carefully, just by this visit alone Ichigo might just have saved the lives of many soldiers as they would most likely do things differently now then what they originally would have done if he hadn't visited them, costing them their lives as they would now fight more carefully while advancing brutally, because Ichigo showed that he truly cared for his soldiers.

This is the result of leaders showing they care for their soldiers, if they just take the time to visit them before going to battle, in just 57 minutes the soldiers would have their last dinner before departing, and Ichigo had decided to sit with them and eat with them, just that alone was astonishing in the spiritual world, a reality that Ichigo thought was very cruel and sad actually, but he wanted to make time for his soldiers, for each and everyone of them if possible.

And Ichigo ordered this in the most unusual way, because usually the highest ranking officers would sit close to him, but these officers were usually located in the rear at the safest possible location, so Ichigo decided to make time for them later, instead he had regular low ranking soldats sit close to him, some of them even fresh out of boot camp, Ichigo would even eat the same thing the soldiers ate, nothing extravagant or anything of the sort, the same with Bambietta.

And when dinner time did come, Ichigo had already ordered something very clever, because he knew that the chefs didn't want to screw up on the food the monarch ate, and because of Ichigo's order, this one was one of the few instances where the K.G didn't check the food at all, as Ichigo said that he would eat from the same dish that the soldiers ate and he would stand up and find his own meal, just like the regular soldier instead of having it served to him.

This meant that the chefs themselves had to assume that Ichigo would eat from every piece of the meal made for 380.000+ soldiers if you include the Stürmarmee and every other branch, which meant they couldn't even screw up on the meal for the regular soldier, because no chef would ever want to disappoint their nations leader or the leader from another nation, though in this case it was their own leader as the chefs were Quincies, but the fourth division did help with the ingredients and the west branch assisted with delievering and ensuring they had fresh ingredients so they all did their part.

Even during dinner Ichigo spoke with his soldiers, be it close or further away, during Ichigo's stay here the K.G mostly assisted the fort guards in guarding the fortress and Ichigo and Bambietta didn't really have that many guard around them as the base was crawling with Quincy soldiers, each of them loyal to the crown and willing to protect the members of the royal family with their lives if the need arose, but the K.G on guard got the job of taking pictures so that the press soldiers could also eat.

After dinner was over and the clock was ticking away, Ichigo took his time to watch the paratroopers get briefed on each of their objectives, sitting on the ground with their parachute bags on.

Their parachute bags was designed to hold their manifested firearm for them, as they might need it quickly after they land, unless they wanted to use a bow, and it was designed to have three cords and a mechanical button as this parachute was designed for the paratroopers specifically.

The cord for the parachute was long and meant to be attached to a line in the transport aircraft so that the parachute would self deploy when they jumped out and was in an appropriate range for it to deploy, the second cord led to the backup parachute in case the main one failed and was located around their stomach, a cord was also attached to their side hip as the parachute was built so that when it was put on, it self welded together using reishi so that it wouldn't fall off so easily, as free falling paratroopers might not be as fun as it sounds, making the parachutes safer then the ones in the world of the living.

But the problem was getting it off, as a solution a small mechanical device was attached to it, being attached to the button and the third cord, if you held in the button which was a safety switch, and then pulled the third cord on your hip, the device would forcibly dispel the parachute using special means as the parachute wasn't an object that could be easily absorbed by anyone, so a special device had to be used to force it to be able to and do it automatically, effectively turning it into reishi in just three seconds and releasing the soldier from it aswell as the weapon.

This was an ingenious solution, as it ensured that the soldier wouldn't have to struggle to get it off, unless the device malfunctioned and they had to cut their way out using their bayonets, but that rarely happened during training, about once or twice for 400.000 soldiers, so it was very rare, and the soldier could fight as the parachute dispelled aswell, as the three seconds after the dispel cord was pulled the soldier would grab his firearm which was attached to the parachute to ensure it didn't fall to the ground as the parachute was attached to the same places as the shoulder strap was attached.

They would all jump fully loaded with manifested gear, so they would be quite heavy compared to a civilian jumping for fun, of course this was war and not for fun, their officers helped them up as they set a course for the ramps on the transport aircrafts and finding their seats, the ground crew was checking that everything was in working order.

Ichigo stood there and watched as the propeller engines started up, guided by the ground crew, each and every transport aircraft was lined up across the taxi way and parking spots on the airfield, and they would take off with an interval of 15 seconds each to allow turbulent air to disperse after an aircraft had taken off as their engines did cause for quite the turbulance once it was reved up.

After about 13 minutes the first aircraft began to taxi to the runway, Ichigo did wonder whether the Onmitsukido that would accompany them would be fine as they had little training in this field, but it was too late to go back now, as the first aircraft had lined up, and then it reved up it's engines before taking off, followed by another one, and then another one, marking the start of their major assault on the occupied east branch, and Ichigo stood there and watched until the last aircraft had taken off before he went to the command center in the fortress to assume command.

To be continued

A/N: A lot of explanations here and major changes, but this is politics so nothing is certain, I did look forwards to getting to this point though I was sceptical about an airborne assault, it did sound kinda awesome as spiritual beings cannot airwalk in the spiritual world from my research, only in fillers were they able to, and slightly in Hueco Mundo but in canon Soul Society we never saw it except for Yhwach but he was special in his own right, no other managed to do it without the usage of the vollstandig, though I wonder whether the vollstandig was the reason on why Yhwach managed to do it but that is open for debate.

We have now approached another combat arc so I will start the next chapter much differently then usual, I hope you're looking forwards to it :)

I also decided to change the swords into reishi swords instead as it sounds more Quincy like, I want the Quincy army to show more Quincy abilities aswell despite being a mechanized unit, and it sounded like a viable option.