Disclaimer: I do not own bleach! All credits go to Tite Kubo
Soul Society East (Takakanai village Outskirts, Quincy Airborne Headquarters)
***Several Hours Later***
Utilizing the radios, the paratroopers aimed for the first objectives despite many being redirected to a closer target, they still managed to salvage the mess they were in.
B company had lost some soldiers prior during the jump, some were reported to be stuck in the trees or killed by Dominion troops, though some were presumed killed in action as no trace of them had been found yet, regardless the paratroopers decided to rendevouz at a farm that A company discovered prior and secured, which ended up becoming the current headquarters of the paratroopers.
They were happy that they had gotten some winter clothing, as it was 08:23 in the morning and the frost was visible, and it was estimated to be -3 degrees celsius with some cold wind blowing, making it even colder, but despite that the morning sun was visible so it might heat up as the day passes by, the temperature had varied between -3 and -4 degrees though they didn't notice it due to them being ordered to wear their winter clothing before jumping.
B company was one of the last companies to come to the farm, and once they got there the first thing they noticed were two soldiers from F company guarding about seven Dominion prisoners who sat on a rock, the two soldiers had manifested SMGs as they were more optimal for this kind of tasks in case the prisoners decides to rebel as they had a rapid fire weapon at the rate and could easily take on the seven unarmed prisoners.
"Sir, you guys B company?" A guard asked.
"Yeah, we are." The captain responded.
"The rest of the battalion is up ahead, first and second battalion has already arrived, if possible we'd like to borrow your medics, got some injured soldiers in the barn up there." The guard replied.
"I see, the barn is a field hospital?" The captain asked.
"Yes sir, we converted it into one with what we have, but it's nothing fancy like hospitals have but we've managed so far." The guard replied
"Alright... You heard him, hurry to the barn." The captain said to the medics who began to run up the road as the captain noticed that it wasn't that far away and that the are between the prisoners and the farm was secured.
"The rest of the upper officers are meeting in the main house for a strategy meeting to take that village." The guard said.
"I see, is it heavily defended?" The captain asked.
"From what the scouts reported, we expect crystal MGs and about a few companies that's already dug in, they also noticed that there are some artillery pieces inside the village aswell just to add to it." The guard replied.
"So it's gonna get rough huh?.. We got some from D company here, any news on them?" The captain asked.
"Yeah they arrived about two hours ago." The guard replied.
"Alright, let's move up." The captain said as the company began to move again.
As the company moved up, Wagner, noticed that a group of children appeared, and just like any other children they were fairly curious as they watched the company move past them, they kept staring at them, if anything it looked like the appearance of soldiers were something special for them, regardless Wagner decided to just ignore them.
As the unit came to the farm, they noticed several soldiers sitting around, some were eating, some were sleeping and some were just talking, they also noticed a group of Onmitsukido troops around, about 487 Onmitsukido members of the total 1000 dropped.
"Alright, you guys fire up some campfires and make yourselves some food and take some rest, I'll meet with colonel Strattorn and see what he has planned, as for D company members, find your company." The captain ordered as the soldiers did as told.
As the rest of the company dispersed in all different directions, the captain went into the main house, which was of japanese style construction, the whole farm had a japanese style to it though probably not a wonder since the east branch was of asian culture after all.
***HQ House***
The captain entered the house where the rest of the higher officers were, namely captains aswell as a few Onmitsukido members, unit leaders most likely, but there were three majors present and one colonel, though probably not a wonder, a platoon was usually commanded by a lieutenant, usually 15 to 45 man sized and a company could have several platoons, how many usually depended on the size of the platoon and company.
A company was usually commanded by a captain, each company had a hierarchy in terms of who is in command in case something happens to the captain, so in some cases it could be led by a preselected lieutenant chosen by the captain as the second in command, and should the lieutenant fall then there was a third lieutenant preselected to take the place instead and downwards it goes until all the officers are dead, and usually a company possessed about 80 to 150 soldiers, though they currently used 90 men per company.
But company B was also part of a bigger unit, namely a battalion, and that's where the majors in attendence come in, because a battalion was usually commanded by a major, and B company was part of 3rd battalion, and currently their battalion commander was one of the three majors present, each battalion possessed about 9 companies each, from A company to I company, and usually possessed about 300 to 800 soldiers.
Then there was the regiment, in which B company was part of 5th regiment as it was called, but it actual full name was 5th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and was usually commanded by a colonel, though 5th regiment could also be called 5th P.I.R for short, and it currently possessed 6 battalions inside it, usually a regiment had 1000 to 5500 soldiers inside it.
The jump was made by a division sized unit, namely 1st Airborne division, a division usually possessed about 10.000 to 25.000 soldiers, and was usually commanded by a one star general, also known as brigadier general by it's proper rank name, and was under the command of brigadier general Alfred Sturmberg, although he was under the command of eastern command stationed at Fort Cardinal, who again was under the command of Ichigo.
A division could have 4 to 5 regiments depending on how the manpower was spread out, in this case it was five despite only having 20.000 soldiers, but that was because of how the manpower was spread around as no unit was truly fully manned inside the division, had it been there would have been three or four regiments only but they had an additional regiment due to the spreading of manpower and making more companies with less soldiers close to the bare minimum.
This division was also assigned to the Corps one, usually a corps possessed about 30.000 to 50.000 soldiers each, and the first corps consisted of members of the landing party aswell aswell as a support unit, so it was a combined marine and airborne unit and a corps was usually led by a two star major general, currently the corps possessed about three divisions, two assault units and one support unit in the form of divisions.
And this corps was again under the command of a field army, which possessed about 100.000 to 300.000, the maximum amount of soldiers participating in the assault, and was commanded by usually one of three high ranking officers, namely a three star lieutenant general, a four star general or a special officer, namely five star meaning sternritter or marshall or higher, and in this case the field army was under the command of the stürmarmee commander, Theun Steehouwer.
Currently there was two field armies actually, one was the assault unit, also known as field army one, then there was the defence unit under the command of Aizen to defend Fort Cardinal, which was field army two, these two field army made up the Eastern Army, which was listed as an army group which usually consisted of 2 to 4 field armies, in this case the bare minimum to form a functioning army group.
And this is where the royal family comes into the play in this instance, for an army group was usually commanded by either a four star general or a special officer, the army group could be led by anyone else, but instead this army group was under the direct command of Bambietta, who formed up the second top link of the chain of command in the entire military.
But that begs the question, Ichigo was also present so where does he play a role in all of this? Well he was in command of the entire military and paladin forces, so he was in charge of every operation the Wandenreich had.
So why is Bambietta the one in charge of the eastern front? Well the answer is simple, just earlier the Wandenreich started to deploy paladins to the world of the living, and whilst they are not considered soldiers on the papers, reality is a bit different, they still had military discipline, they still had a military system in place and were well trained fighters, and Ichigo was in command of them aswell.
If anything, Ichigo was just a supervisor that supervised the entire eastern front for now, but that was a temporary supervision, he supervised the operations because he wanted a foothold and to see the situation first hand, as his eyes and focus had been directed to the eastern front directly, and Ichigo was hell bent on getting a foothold here by any means necessary to the point of nearly becoming desperate.
So in short Ichigo was by this point fully focused on the eastern front, and as nothing special was happening in the world of the living, there was no need for Ichigo to divert his eyes from the world of the living as things stood so he decided to ignore the world of the living for now.
So the full name of B company was actually Eastern Army, Field Army One, Corps one, 1st Airborne Division, 5th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion B company, which is quite the long name, so that's why we just call it 5th regiment B company although it would in reality be more proper to call it 5th regiment 3rd battalion B company.
"Captain." The colonel said as he greeted him.
"Colonel Stratton, sir." The captain said as he went to the table with a map and some photos.
"Alright, we're all here then so let's begin." Stratton said before he continued.
"Scouts have confirmed short range artillery inside the village, accompanied by several crystal MG positions, and to add to it, they've dug in tightly, they are definitely expecting us and I find it rather hard to believe that they are unaware of our build up here." Stratton said before he continued.
"The landings will take place at 09:00 on the beaches and that's about... 37 minutes from now on, afterwards it will take them about 3 hours to reach the village from the beaches, accompanied by additional waiting from unloading the transport ships, so we can expect reinforcements about tomorrow." Stratton said.
"If we succeed in capturing the village, the enemy will most likely launch a counter attack to regain it in force, so we need to dig in after we take it and defend it with all we've got, luckily the A.N.U has already blown up key bridges which will delay their reinforcements so they've bought us some valuable time." The 2nd battalion major said.
"How many hostile reinforcements can we expect?" The 1st battalion R company captain asked.
"No idea." The major responded.
"We don't know how many we will be facing?" The 3rd battalion B company captain asked.
"The orders are simple, capture the village and hold it." The major responded.
"We do not want to meet those reinforcements in urban areas so we will fight them in the open just outside the village in key areas and create ambush positions." Stratton said.
"And to add to the briefing, for those who haven't noticed yet, the Dominion seems to have gotten some new toys for their infantry aswell." The 1st battalion major said.
"New toys sir?" The 3rd battalion A company captain asked.
"Yeah, take a look." The 2nd battalion major said as he took forth something.
The major put a staff of the Dominion troops on the table, and every officer looked at it intently, as it was far different from the staves the Dominion used prior, as this one was far more tactical, about the same length as their rifles with an almost musket like appearance compared to their plain staff counterpart.
Formerly the Dominion had trouble aiming at long ranges with their staves, this was due to the fact that they had no way to aim properly, but this new one possessed a stock to rest against the shoulder, although it did possess a slight amount of metal on it, it didn't have a trigger like the normal musket at all, but it had that flint on top, but when pulled the crystal detached instead.
And to add insult to injury, the crystals were now shaped like a spear, and while it didn't make any difference in the beam fired, the officers had already sent pictures to eastern command who transfered them to the research division on the assumption that the crystals themselves might be different, something the research division was quick to conclude as it looked like the crystals were more hardened and durable aswell as of better quality, ensuring that the crystals can fire for longer periods of time, although there was nothing conclusive as the research division hasn't gotten their hands on it yet.
This was of particular concern to the Quincies as this meant that the enemy fire would be far more accurate, this would also prove to be a devastating factor for the Gotei members with melee ranged Zanpakutos who was unable to take out any enemy from a distance, compared to Senbonzakura and Hyorinmaru and other ranged Zanpakutos.
"These are definitely going to be able to stab but not slice." The 3rd battalion D company captain said.
"Yeah, so just a heads up, things will get more messy around here." The 2nd battalion major said.
"There are good news however." Stratton said.
"What would that be sir?" The 1st Battalion major asked.
"I just got off the horn with eastern command and his majesty has directly ordered in a lot of wingmen, due to the unexpectedly large number of air defences around here, wingmen has been ordered in to deal with the matter for us, meaning we are getting air support." Stratton said, surprising everyone.
"How would using air units against air defences work?" The 3rd battalion major asked curiously.
"Simple, SEAD and DEAD strikes to be precise." Stratton replied.
"SEAD and DEAD strikes?" The 2nd battalion major asked.
"At 08:45 precisely a strategic bombing will commence by air command accompanied by a large scale artillery barrage by the navy on the beaches to clear out as much of the defenders as possible, bomber planes will be used in a large scale, wingmen will accompany them and travel inwards as the bombs are being dropped." Stratton said before he continued.
"These wingmen are made up into two units, the SEAD unit who has a special one way shield barrier protecting them, courtesy of our paladins, The shield barrier should protect them as long as they don't take a direct hit from flak at the very least, and they will fly at high altitude and fire heilig pfeils at the enemy air defences to get their attention and hopefully suppress them, or as SEAD is shortened for Suppression of Enemy Air Defences." Stratton said.
"I don't envy the miserable bastards that drew the short end of that stick..." The third battalion B company captain said.
"They didn't draw anything, it's volunteers nice enough to risk getting blown to pieces for us... Anyways, the second unit, the DEAD unit has been equiped with panzershrecks and additional crosses and will fly in as low as they can while the SEAD unit has the air defences attention and then once in visual and range they'll fire a SPAR round directly at the air emplacement, or as DEAD stands for Destruction of Enemy Air Defences." Stratton said, surprising the officers.
"So there will be a lot of wingmen on this job?" The 2nd battalion major asked.
"Correct, the bombers are already packed with bombs and wingmen to the level of being overcrowded for this operation, additionally the wingmen will assist us with tactical bombings once in range, they will only use the panzershreck for the dead strike so it's tactical bombing runs for us, This is a very valuable asset for us and we currently have a lot of tactical strikes availeble soon with lots of wingmen, so don't let the opportunity go to waste." Stratton said before he continued.
"If you need support or a pinned down, don't take unnecessary risks and make needless sacrifices, instead use your radio operators to call in an airstrike, then all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the fireworks... So I really hope you Soul Society East guys don't mind us breaking a few things around here?" The colonel said as he looked at one of the Onmitsukido officers.
"Not at all, our objective is to capture that village at all costs, sacrifices will have to be made." One of the Onmitsukido officers said.
"Good, then we're all on the same page, you got some soldiers with radio operations training?" The colonel asked.
"Yes sir, we got some field radios at Fort Cardinal." One of the Onmitsukido officers said.
"Then the same applies to you too, we need all the soldiers we can get for now, so don't make needless sacrifices, call in an airstrike first, then a second one if needed, or a third one, or a fourth and so on, use the asset as much as possible to avoid needless sacrifices." Stratton said.
In terms of rank and superiority agreed on by the Wandenreich and the Gotei, Stratton was currently the superior officer in terms of rank and since this was a combined operation, he was the officer in charge, Soi Fon did jump aswell but no one had seen or heard from her for a while and she was currently listed as M.I.A or Missing In Action, though she might turn up somewhere with the rest of the Onmitsukido.
This of course caused Kyoraku a massive headache because this meant that the Onmitsukido and the second division was now missing their commander, so the Onmitsukido were entirely reliant on the Quincy command structure as a result.
"So what's the plan?" The 3rd battalion I company captain asked.
The colonel and the majors went through their plan which took about 14 minutes as they went through it in detail, regardless each company and each battalion had their specific jobs to attend.
"When do we attack?" The 3rd battalion A company captain asked.
"In about two hours, that should allow the majority of the regiment to rest and eat, in the meantime brief the soldiers." The colonel replied.
Landing Beach A
***Short While Later, Bomber Squadron 88, Cockpit***
It was soon time for the strikes to commence, the bombers had taken off from Fort Cardinal and then flown across the sea following the fleet before heading straight for the beaches with the task of dropping bombs on the defensive lines on the beach, the formation heading towards beach A was large and was expected to contain enough firepower to level the whole beach but just to be safe they ordered a 15 minute artillery strike from cruisers to clear out as much of the defences as possible, afterwards the stürmarmee would storm the beaches.
They flew at a height of about 12.000 feet, just about low cloud level, they had masks to breathe in so they could fly as high as 20.000 feet if needed, but it was a matter of accuracy, as higher altitude also meant less accuracy on the bombs, as wind speed, wind direction and other factors plays a major role in where the payload hits as the Wandenreich did not possess guided bombs, of course a higher altitude was preferred as it made them harder to hit, it also made it harder to hit the target aswell.
However there was three flights flying at that altitude, all three carrying six wingmen each as an escort in case of Dominion interceptors, although they were inside the planes, these planes flying so high weren't bombers but transport planes carrying tons of additional crosses for the wingmen to utilize for their SEAD and DEAD strikes aswell as tactical air support role, namely they functioned as a aerial refit station, but they were about 20 minutes behind the bomber units as to not expose them to early.
The bombing unit was comprised of about 60 bombers each so a total of 180 bombers had taken off.
"Skies have really cleared up." The pilot said as he looked out the window.
"Yeah, shame it wasn't like this tonight." The co-pilot said.
"Regardless of the botched drops they were still capable of reorganizing, so I wouldn't be too concerned about it." The pilot said.
"Yeah... How far out are we?" The co-pilot asked.
"Ten more minutes on this bearing, keep the current altitude and speed." The navigator said.
"Looks quiet... Almost too quiet, would've atleast thought they'd send up interceptors by now." The pilot said as he looked at a screen.
"Yeah I heard rumors that it happened in the west branch?" The co-pilot asked.
"They did, and they didn't send out those damned beasts either, but rather fullbringers with the capability to fly using some sort of device." The navigator stated.
"Considering how quiet it is around here I'd say that they're hiding somewhere." The co-pilot replied.
"If they don't show it just makes the job easier for us." The front gunner said loudly.
"That's true, less to worry about." The co-pilot said.
"I'm still concerned about air defences though, so don't let your guards down just yet." The pilot warned.
"Right, right." The co-pilot said as he looked ahead and saw land approaching, with a large fleet just ahead of it accompanied by a few airships, although due to the altitude and range they were just a black dot, this caused the co-pilot to send a message through the loud speakers.
"Alright, we're in visual range, get ready." The co-pilot said into the speaker, causing the wingmen to prepare to fly, soon they just awaited the go ahead.
It didn't take long for them to get close to the beach, and naturally the Dominion possessed air defences there aswell, much to the annoyance of the flight crews, so the green light was given and the wingmen to jump out and commit themselves to a SEAD and DEAD strike.
"Opening bomb bay doors." The navigator said as he flipped a switch on the panel and adjusted the sight for their altitude.
"Wingmen are cleared to deploy, good luck." The co-pilot said into the speaker.
Fort Cardinal Command Center
"Your majesties, our bombers are encountering resistance, wingmen has been deployed and are commencing SEAD and DEAD strikes on enemy anti air emplacements." A controller said as he looked at Ichigo and Bambietta.
"So it's finally begun." Bambietta said as Ichigo nodded.
Ichigo and Bambietta were both sitting at a large table, accompanied by Kyoraku, Yamamoto and Ukitake who also served as commanders that assisted Kyoraku directly, as unlike Ichigo, Kyoraku didn't have thousands of high ranking officers availeble to assist him, namely colonel or higher mostly.
Ichigo saw that Kyoraku was hiding his face as usual behind his straw hat, something Kyoraku had a tendancy to do once a bad situation arose, and it was clear that the headache for Kyoraku was becoming more intense with one of his officers missing in action, after all, it was understandable that the second division couldn't be left to that lousy lieutenant that Soi Fon called a punching bag.
Then there was the issue with the Onmitsukido, as they were essentially a seperate organization from the Gotei, taking orders from the Gotei only if their commander has become a Gotei captain, of course there was always Yoruichi but she wasn't really enlisted anymore and her actions in the war was by all right voluntary as she didn't have any affiliations directly, only indirectly through the Shihoin family.
Though Ichigo did feel bad for Kyoraku as everything has been a headache for him ever since Ichigo took the throne in Silbern and the Wandenreich detached and essentially became it's own universe independent from this one, though Ichigo was left to wonder if the Zero division really had intended for that to happen or whether they just intended to create a new realm inside the standard universe.
Under normal circumstances the creation of another universe required immense power, so the only possibility of this happening is if the gem used utilized Ichigo's primordial powers aswell as his powers as a good to make the Wandenreich it's own universe, this was essentially the only viable answer, as both Erwig and Kisuke had studied the Wandenreich as a whole and realized that the crystal by itself was unable to do something so grand of this caliber, it needed a powerful outside source to draw it's power from, and that source was undoubtedly Ichigo.
The primordial powers of Ichigo naturally possessed this capability, as the powers of a primordial god did not adhere to the standard laws, as a matter of fact the primordial powers were so immense that they didn't obey any law at all as they were considered too powerful to rule or tame to a certain extent, there was essentially only two rules that applied to those powers.
1. The primordial powers can only function with the aspects of the primordial god, meaning that the Soul King who possessed evolution, stagnation and miracle could only utilize powers associated with those three aspects, the Soul king would be unable to utilize the powers of creation, destruction and strength, which was the aspects of Ichigo, and Ichigo couldn't use the aspects of the Soul King either, so it was limited to three aspects.
2. The aspects of primordial gods cannot cause harm to another primordial god, this meant that the Soul King's aspect of stagnation would not be able to devolve Ichigo, but at the same time, Ichigo's aspect of destruction would not be able to affect the soul king, although no one knows whether the same applies for beneficial aspects such as the aspects of evolution and strength and only speculation remained on that with no conclusive evidence.
Ichigo had given Kisuke and Erwig green light to do research with his powers as long as they didn't hinder his job as a monarch, this was due to the fact that primordial gods were essentially a mystery where knowledge was at a bare minimum, and any scientist in their right minds would jump right on to this research opportunity, but of course a lot of it was also deemed top secret and secrets of the crown directly, rather then secrets of the state.
The difference between secrets of the crown and secrets of the state are essentially the fact that secrets of the crown are secrets within the royal family directly that no one except a lucky handful of others knew, and was deemed even more secret then secrets of the state where you needed a certain security clearance to get access to the information, so in short, secrets of the crown was tightly guarded and they went to great lengths to ensure that information wasn't leaked and that it was information next to impossible to get.
Regardless Ichigo decided to deprioritize his empathy for Kyoraku and focus on the matter at hand.
Landing Beach A
The SEAD unit moved as high as they could before utilizing their bracelets to summon two Ginrei Kojaku bows as they flew rapidly across the sky, they aimed in at the air defences that was firing and fired a barrage of arrows right at them in an attempt to suppress them and get their attention on them, and for some it worked as the lesser air defences quickly began to focus on them.
Regardless the SEAD unit kept firing and flying through the sky at irregular patterns to make them as hard to hit as possible, the DEAD unit approached with their manifested panzershrecks, now loaded with a SPAR round to eliminate the air defences.
It didn't take long until they got close enough and fired of whilst moving, of course this meant that the accuracy was less due to flying through the sky whilst firing, but as long as they managed to get atleast one hit then that's fine.
Some missed their targets by mere centimeters, as they aimed directly at the foot of the weapons, then the rounds exploded, damaging the air defences or outright destroying them, of course this was easier said then done as they were still taking fire from whatever the Dominion could point upwards, and they still had some targets remaining but they decided to ignore them as the bombers had begun to drop their bombs and turn, accompanied by the sound of cannons firing, so at this time they wanted to ensure they kept their distance unless they wanted to be bombed flat themselves.
As all of this happened, the soldiers in the landing ships were preparing for their landing.
To be continued
A/N: I decided to make this chapter short as I have been struggling a lot with migraine as of late regretfully so writing isn't exactly on top, so sorry about that.