Are you fighting for honour? And we are fighting for our freedom, which means that everyone fights for what he lacks. - Bolesław Wieniawa-Dlugoszowski to the tsarist officers when asked what the Polish Legions were fighting for in Austria during the First World War.
The Empire of Parpaldia
20 March 1640 C.C.Y./ 1975 P.C
Esthirant
16th Infantry Regiment 3rd Division Capital Defence Force
Once again plaster was sprinkled on the soldiers in the basement. Some tried to clean the dust from their hair, but not the captain who commanded the regiment, or rather what was left of it since the battle began.
And there was very little left, barely a company from what was once one of the best regiments of the elite Parpaldian Infantry. Once they were the pinnacle and they were the force that everyone feared. Today they are like rats hiding from a big and hungry cat. Only a few days ago, to get among them, one had to undergo a grueling training that made the volunteers sweat, and the rejection scale exceeded half of the applicants.
Now, anyone who could fight was taken, what could be seen from the uniforms in which one could find conscripts taken under arms to protect the capital and soldiers from already broken regiments of line infantry or cavalry.
But worst of all was the loss of most officers so that command fell to Captain Julius Gais. He was the longest serving surviving officer of the regiment. He was fortunate in that his position was hit by the smallest attack force and he was out of his command post at the time of the first assault. This was not a sign of his sixth sense or extraordinary skill.
No, he was a painfully ordinary regimental officer, better than his counterpart in an ordinary regiment, but he did not stand out among the elite of the Parpadian army. He was simply lucky to be in a different location and avoid the destruction of his company's command section.
His new command section located in this basement, the building above it was partially destroyed but they managed to safely clear the passage to the basement, was composed of survivors from other units defending the capital.
The problem is that the others are inferior to him and know little about commanding a larger unit than a team in the field. As a result, they act only as helpers and followers of Julius' orders.
Julius was forced to make his own assessment of the situation and the advice of the others was contradictory and to the best of his knowledge wrong, but he could not blame them if he himself was not much better against their enemy and their steel machines. Especially one of them which made a characteristic rattling sound when it moved. It was taller and narrower than another similar machine which like it had a strange stick in front which soon turned out to be a cannon.
Both these machines supported Polish infantry, easily blowing up every point of resistance that they established in the city. Trying to even scratch these machines proved impossible for Parpaldia's guns. The bullets simply bounced off with a loud sound when they hit.
Apart from them there were smaller ones which shot faster than them but did not blow their targets into nothing but rather to pieces with their cannons. These could be damaged, but each such action cost them dearly because they were very rarely without infantry covering them.
Fortunately all these machines had problems with moving through the streets of Esthirant, which were sometimes too narrow for more than one machine. And in the old part of the city it is said that there are hardly any of their machines at all.
But although dangerous, they are not the worst. The worst enemy for them are the flying machines, which are able to hover in the air like their wiverns, but their firepower and range are much better.
Just one of them is enough to take out an entire post, although it is inconspicuous and seems ridiculous until it opens fire. These machines quickly became known as the Steel Dragons. Fortunately, they were occasionally shot down by anti-aircraft guns, the problem being that they didn't have enough of them and their great disadvantage of having colored flashes when firing caused them to be lost very quickly if not hidden back.
Alongside them were the Thunderbolts which arrived quickly and destroyed their target with a single hit.
Julius who was hovering over the map and thinking about all that I had just told the humble narrator, though of course it was slightly different in his mind, was suddenly forced to stop his musings when a messenger rushed into the basement at full speed.
"Captain! I report that the enemy is attacking ours on Dragonius Street, we have heavy losses, Sergeant Lydus requests reinforcements and new orders!" Said in one breath loudly a messenger in the already partially clothed garb of a private. Julius looked at him and then gave the order. "Second Lieutenant Decimus, you are to support the defense with your men."
He then turned to the messenger "And you Private, convey to Lydus that we hold the position at all costs, we cannot let them pass on!" The messenger saluted "Ave Imperator Captain" After which he ran back out and right on top of him came Decimus who commanded the surviving land dragons. By coincidence they managed to link up when they were retreating from the outskirts of the capital to the center.
So far they've only been used a couple of times in murderous ambushes against the Polish Infantry, not without losses of course, because the Polish Infantry carries something called a Pipe because of its pipe-like appearance and fires rockets. And a couple of these weapons fell into their hands which they used to good effect. Unfortunately, as a rule they are forced to abandon these weapons after one shot. Because Poles, as it turned out, don't like to be shot with their own weapons.
Coming back to Julius, he returned with anxiety in his soul to the map and with despair he could look at it. It was for a simple reason, breaking through Sergeant Lydus' resistance point would de facto create a breach in Parpaldia's defensive lines and allow the defensive forces to be split in half. All requests for reinforcements were rejected on the grounds that they were needed elsewhere.
Which unfortunately was true because Poles were attacking literally everywhere as if they did not care where they break through but in how many places they do it. Julius could only pray to all gods that they would help his soldiers to hold out even a little longer.
Mi-2 US
49th Land Forces Aviation Regiment
A key of three Mi-2 helicopters tore through the war-torn air of the city. Their objective was simple to support a strike on an enemy position on the street of some Dragonius. The three pilots flew quietly between the pretty tall buildings of the city, avoiding flying into the smoke rising from the destroyed buildings.
Of course they were on the lookout for hiding so-called Flashers as they began to call the anti-aircraft guns of Parpaldia, one helicopter squadron had already been lost because of them.
And so they flew to the ears of Lieutenant Stefan Nowak, who commanded the key, the voice of the major from the strike they were to support rang out. "This is Major Orlowski, where the fuck are you Lobuz-1? Those Crocodiles are making fried sausages out of us!" The lieutenant frowned and asked. "Lobuz-1 to Orlovsky can you repeat, you are under attack by Crocodiles?"
After a short pause the sharp voice of the nervous Major replied. "Yes we fucking are Lobuz-1, get your asses over here and get here, our BWP-1 can't stop them!" The lieutenant quickly replied "Roger Orlowski, out." He then turned to the pilots of his key. "You heard the Scoundrels, time to turn the propellers down a bit."
A collective "Yes, sir!" came over the radio and the entire key turned and accelerated to the limits of their machines. The Mi-2 US were not overly fast machines as far as speed was concerned, in fact they were slower than the average Viper, but unlike them this was not a problem thanks to the range of their cannon and 4 machine guns.
Fortunately for the soldiers below, the Mi-2s arrived after a long while, although it seemed like quite a long hour of fighting. Nowak watched with distaste as the Polish infantrymen were fried alive by the land dragons. Quite a cluster of them had appeared here. Fortunately, there were a few visible killed by soldiers.
Most from RPG's, others from BWP-1 cannon, unfortunately BWP-1's could not use their Malutka anti-tank rockets due to the quite large minimum firing distance of 500 meters, well below the standard urban clash range. This was an obvious disadvantage of these missiles, and after the first combat reports of this, work on a new guided missile for the BWP-1 to replace the Malutek began at a very rapid pace.
As for the exchange of fire between the infantry, the battle so far in which the Parpaldians were pinned down by the Poles' firepower began to change when, with the appearance of the land dragons, the Polish troops were forced to focus on those beasts. Which of course the defenders took advantage of by immediately firing as much as they could at the attackers when they gained their breath.
Fortunately for the Polish soldiers, a key of attack helicopters began its fire cannonade towards the dragons. The combined firepower of 3 cannons and 12 machine guns was enough to smash the attacking enemy. Did I say smash? I'm sorry, I meant to say torn to shreds, and I don't mean that as a joke but to state the simple fact that literally the enemy was being torn to shreds.
The most frightening thing was when it came to land dragons code-named CROOKODILES, as if anyone had forgotten that. They were really riddled with holes, whole sheets of their armor plates along with the skin disintegrated and fell off from the force with which they were hit by the 23mm cannons of the Polish Mi-2. Well, we are talking about an improved version of the cannons of the famous Il-2 from World War II.
Anti-tank missiles hit their targets with such force that they turned into Swiss cheese, or a sieve if you prefer the comparison with a tool. As for ordinary infantrymen, it's easy to guess that they turned them into a bloody mess. Of course the dragons themselves lasted for a long while before they died because of the obvious organ wounds.
After a few minutes of supporting fire, the helicopters fell silent as the last of the defenders either dropped dead or fled with the remaining land dragons who escaped the carnage. The surroundings fell silent for a moment before Major Orlovsky began to rant while formulating new orders. "I want you retards to move your asses! Gather up the wounded and check on the dead, and you call for an ambulance to pick up those who can't fight."
The helicopter key itself, meanwhile, dispersed around the area looking for new targets. The soldiers on the ground, meanwhile, went to work, securing the area and looking for their own and the enemy's wounded so that they could extract information from them, and began to set up a makeshift medical point for wounded soldiers and civilians.
After a short while, the two soldiers noticed movement in the damaged building. "Someone's in there!" Said one to the other. "I see dumbass, now let's go check out what it was." After which they both cautiously walked to the building. The building looked like a 19th century tenement house from Germany as far as it looked like it had a couple of extra floors.
The soldiers themselves looked at each other and, mindful of the Parpaldians' desire for hand-to-hand combat and especially bayonets, decided to put bayonets on their Kalachs. They then carefully entered through a hole in the wall made by a missed RPG-7 rocket.
The room they entered appeared to be a living room of some sort, but the debris and dust had effectively distorted it so that it was impossible to tell what the room had been like before. Seeing that there was no one in the room they went on to the next room. The room they entered looked like a kitchen, and to their left they saw a slightly unsealed door to the corridor of the building.
The two soldiers did not search the kitchen much except to make sure no one was hiding in it. They then moved to the door, positioning themselves on the left to have a view through the ajar crack of the door. Then the first of them slowly opened the door wider. Then they checked to see if anyone was lurking on their right side to then check on their left side.
"There's nothing here." Said the first soldier. "I see Stasiek, though isn't it strange with this door?" The soldier named Stasiek turned around and raised his eyebrows. "And what is wrong Karol?" Karol grabbed the door and started to move it, "Well look, this door comes out like the inside of an apartment, not like the front door, and this is a tenement house!"
Stasiek just rolled his eyes "So what, it's a different country and world, it doesn't have to be like ours." Karol looked at him somewhat disdainfully but said nothing when they heard a loud knocking. "What was that?" Stasiek asked. "Sounds like the tapping of a wooden leg, my grandfather had one because of the Great War." Karol replied.
They both went to check where the noise was coming from. After a short while they reached the stairwell. On the stairs they found an old man lying with a wooden prosthetic leg and a young woman who could be considered his daughter or granddaughter helping him. As soon as the Polish soldiers entered, they both looked at them with fear, of course the young woman with much more.
The young woman was the first to react and stood in front of her (father/grandfather) and started to say something in Parpaldzki, both Polish soldiers looked at each other not knowing how to react. They did not understand the words, but they guessed what she meant. After a long moment Karol said "Let's go, there are only civilians here, there is nothing to cause incidents."
Stasiek looked at him doubtfully "What about what we saw?" Karol tilted his head "It was probably some kid who, when he saw that we noticed him, fucked up and jumped up. Anyway, fuck it, none of us enlisted in the army, we're just supposed to do our job as conscripts and go home." Stasiek nodded in agreement and then both soldiers went back from where they came.
The two natives looked at each other and the woman said. "These soldiers are strange, they did not demand anything from us, nor did they try to do anything, they just came and saw and left. What do you think grandfather?"
The old man looked at his granddaughter calmly, "I think you have to thank the gods that these Poles are so careless that they did not check upstairs where our poor sergeant is and that they are not interested in plundering. My dear granddaughter and now help me to go, my best years are behind me."
The young woman rolled her eyes and sarcastically said, "Yes, yes the poor sergeant who ran away like a coward and hit the poor old man in a panic run on the stairs." The old man giggled and then groaned slightly in pain as his granddaughter helped him stand "My back!" The young woman reacted angrily to this.
"When I get that bastard he'll wish he had fallen into Polish hands." And then she took her grandfather by the arm and they started walking towards the back exit. When they were leaving through it, they were stopped for a moment by other Polish soldiers who rushed inside. One of them, seeing what had happened, spoke in broken Parpadian and showed them where the paramedic who had just taken care of the other wounded was, many of whom turned out to be civilians.
The young woman thanked him and went in the direction shown, after a short while she reached the makeshift medical point for civilians, there she helped to put her grandfather in a safe place. Then she looked around the room seeing how it was filling up with wounded and their families at a very fast pace. As she watched Polish medics with the red cross running back and forth across the makeshift medical post, she asked herself one thing.
If it was the other way around, would their army help Polish civilians?
"The Dancing Imperialist"
March 20, 1975 P.C 16:38:56
Captain Jan "141" Cena
1st Assault Battalion
Esthirant, Commercial District, Empire of Parpaldia
On the roof of a cargo building there was an old man with a great Sarmatian or, if you prefer, Polish moustache. In spite of his years, he had the strength and stamina of someone much younger, well, getting from the Red Berets to the elite 1st Assault Battalion is a feat that few can boast of, and that it was done by someone of his age is even greater.
On his head he wears an old pattern 44 field cornet with obvious signs of heavy use. Apart from him there were also his comrades from the unit, namely.
Since his transfer to the New World he had been assigned to the 1st Assault Battalion, Warrant Officer Jan "Mydło" Tomaszewski, a man in his 30s with a shaved head, who did not want to reveal how he got his nickname.
Lieutenant Szymon "Duch" Rilejski, always hidden behind a balaclava with an embroidered face of a skeleton, who comes from the Poles who emigrated to Mexico in the 19th century and whose family returned to Poland before World War II.
And the newest addition to the squad, assigned before the operation was Sergeant Major Grzegorz "Karaluch" Aleksandrowicz, who was an average looking man in his prime but extremely difficult to kill and catch. During his training he was one of those who never got caught in action and any fall that should hurt other people didn't move him.
Their target was General Hadrian Patrenius, who was responsible for the defense of the capital city of Parpaldia. He was the only one to make the battle, which was supposed to be over by noon, last so long. Brigadier General Waclaw Szklarski commanding the attacking 8th Dresden Mechanized Division was extremely displeased with this and ordered one of the special units in the city to capture the General and thus force the Parpaldians to lay down their arms.
This task fell to one of the units of the 1st Assault Battalion operating in the city, namely Captain Cena's unit.
Of course the choice was not accidental, his Platoon, to which he belongs, had as its area of operation the place where the enemy commander was hiding, which was obviously drawn from the "interrogated" soldiers of Parpaldia by the Polish Special Forces (i.e. Polish Specnaz for obvious reasons). Anyway 1st Assault Battalion was thrown into battle in the city earlier than the 8th Division attack and in accordance with Warsaw Pact Doctrine prepared the city for the assault.
That is, it recognized enemy positions and launched diversionary attacks after the assault on the city had begun. This caused quite a shock in the ranks of the defenders who had no chance against the trained commandos. Their precise attacks caused the collapse of the defensive structures of the city like a house of cards.
The same thing happened on the entire frontline against Parpaldia, where the attacks of the Polish commandos wreaked death and destruction and their enemy did not know how to counteract it, what's more they considered it to be the attacks of the entire army, not small groups of people. What's even worse for Parpaldia was that they had no sign of destruction to speak of because the Special Companies had no losses!
It's easy to see why, being killed by a simple treecat with an old musket is a blow below the belt for someone who was trained to blow up canals and bridges in West Germany and the like.
But back to our commandos. They were to use the support of the 16th Medium Tank Regiment and the 36th Mechanized Regiment to break into the enemy headquarters and capture General Hadrian.
"We're moving in a minute!" He turned to Cena's squad when his watch showed 4:44 p.m. The commandos quickly bundled up and began to get ready for the run that awaited them when the whole mess started. As the clock struck 4:45 p.m., a Su-7 flew over their heads and bombed the main defense point of the Parpaldian command, and the last T-34 Platoon of the 16th Armored Regiment, supported by a mechanized infantry battalion from the 16th Regiment, moved into the assault.
The recognizable sound of the T-34's ticking caterpillars was quickly drowned out by the automatic and machine gun fire of the Polish infantry, and this symphony of chaos was soon joined by the T-34's cannons. The Special Forces waited a moment before using ropes to climb onto the roof of the building opposite them. After a short while they got to the other side and spotted a Parpaldia anti-aircraft gun turning towards the attackers.
"Karaluch, RPG fast!" Shouted Cena and Karaluch quickly took the RPG-7 he was carrying in his hands and aimed it at the cannon, after a short moment of aiming he pulled the trigger and the rocket fired towards the cannon. The crew tried to escape, but did not have enough time when the rocket hit the cannon, causing an explosion and tearing the defenders to pieces. Those responsible for the ammunition were quickly cut down by the commando rifles.
The squad then proceeded to briefly clear a path to the building in which the general was hiding and then in twos they roped down and rushed towards the building. Here
"Karaluch, RPG fast!" Shouted Cena, and Karaluch quickly took the RPG-7 he was carrying in his hands and aimed it at the cannon, after a brief moment of aiming he pulled the trigger and the rocket fired towards the cannon. The crew tried to escape, but did not have enough time when the rocket hit the cannon, causing an explosion and tearing the defenders to pieces. Those responsible for the ammunition were quickly cut down by the commando rifles.
The squad then proceeded to briefly clear a path to the building where the general was hiding and then in twos they roped down and rushed towards the building. Here they decided to split up, with Karaluch and Cena going inside and Mydło and Duch going around the building to watch from the other side.
As they decided so they did and while Mydło and Karaluch made their way around the other side of the building, Duch and Cena made their way through the defenders inside. The shooting duels themselves were simple looking at the firepower both teams carried, there is simply no way to stop people armed with muskets and spire rifles with automatic rifles.
Eventually they reached the exit through which General Hadrian was just coming out.
"Karaluch, blinding grenade now!" Shouted Cena and the Karaluch followed the order a moment later blinding Hadrian's guards.
"My Lord run! We will stop them!" Shouted one of the guardsmen rubbing his eyes and sensitively shielding the general with his own body.
The general quickly started trying to run away and was helped by the guardsmen who had already gone outside the building.
"Duch, Mydło, Target is running outside stop him!" He shouted into Cena's radio and then renewed his fire towards the guardsmen who weren't getting killed as easily as the previous one, clearly the elite guardsmen aren't just for show.
Those already killed were victims of a blinding grenade that allowed them to be disposed of quickly, unfortunately not fast enough to kill all the guardsmen, there were too many of them and they had to be careful with their Target. Now that the General had escaped outside, Karaluch pulled out a grenade and overhearing the noise said "Attention, Strike is flying!" and after a moment the grenade flew from his hand right under the legs of his opponents.
Cena quickly hid when Karaluch shouted and after a moment he heard a loud bang and then felt a shockwave pass by his hiding place. He looked out cautiously later and furrowed his brow as he saw the gruesome sight the concussion grenade had left behind. Their enemies were scattered in pieces generally around the area, though there were a few whole bodies and it was not a pleasant sight when you had to watch chests or other body parts crushed or eyes falling out of orbits.
"But we made a bigot, Captain" Karaluch turned to Cena, Cena just nodded and after a moment he moved forward with a confident step carefully checking if anyone else was alive trying to thank them with a shot in the back. Suddenly Cena's radio crackled.
"Duch to 141, we have the target and his escort, we pinned them down about 65 meters from the exit of the building he ran out of. I advise you to hurry, we're running out of pips, there were a hell of a lot of those outside."
"141 to Duch, understood we will be arriving in a moment." Then he looked at Karaluch and with a nod ordered to run after him, Karaluch without a word accepted the order and moved after the commander. Unfortunately they had not reached the exit when a musket shot was fired and Karaluch screamed in pain. It turned out that one of the defenders was lucky when the rest tried to hide when they saw too late and realized that the egg was a grenade.
Then after the explosion he pretended to be dead and the commandos, due to lack of time, did not realize he was alive. When Cena turned around, he noticed a foolishly grinning guardsman who didn't believe he'd succeeded in his action. With a roar of rage, Cena switched his AKMS to automatic and put a full solid round from the magazine into the survivor.
His opponent didn't seem to feel it because his face didn't change but he fell to the ground with bloody holes, covering the red with more red. He then ran over to Karaluch who was moaning in pain.
"Are you okay Karaluch?" Karaluch nodded and rubbed the impact site in response "No big deal Captain, those vests from Japan that intelligence got us worked well." After which he rubbed again "Though I'd rather not test it on myself."
He then accepted Cena's hand and with his help lifted himself off the ground. Then both commandos moved to the exit. After a brief moment and checking for threats they exited the building seeing the remnants of the general guard with a target held to the ground the entire time. They immediately moved to attack from their side catching a few Parpaldians exposed for them.
"About time gentlemen, I'm on my last two magazines what happened over there at your place?" Asked Mydło over the radio who using his SVD sniper rifle was taking out the Parpaldians one by one as if this was a regular shooting range or some kind of computer game. Although the number of enemies with which all four commandos were confronted brought to mind a certain ultra-American shooter series.
"One of those jerks was lucky not to be killed by a Karaluch grenade." Replied Cena as he put another guardsman down. "Luckily those bulletproof vests passed the test, although getting hit by a musket is not a pleasant thing." Added Karaluch, who did his part with his PKM by pinning down a Parpaldian, relieving Duch of the role, who could focus on shooting at targets instead of keeping them in place.
Of course they had to be careful with their fire not to accidentally shoot the enemy general. Suddenly, they saw one of the guardsmen say something and wave his arms and after a few swipes, suddenly their opponents were surrounded by a blue barrier that began to deflect bullets.
"What the fuck is that?" Asked Mydło rhetorically "Blue shit that will let our opponents fuck up" replied Karaluch who tried unsuccessfully to destroy the barrier with his machine gun. But Cena suddenly smiled mischievously "Not necessarily Karaluch not necessarily, see they are not shooting at us."
And indeed as they noticed their enemy started moving but not shooting, you can see the magic barrier is two sided when it comes to shooting. Meanwhile, Cena used the radio to communicate with the tank platoon leader and explain his plan.
Cena's smile only grew wider as the platoon commander agreed with him. "What is it that amuses you so much Cena?" Asked Duch curiously "You'll see" The Captain replied mysteriously.
"What will I see..." Replied the Duch and abruptly paused as an entire Tank Platoon with Infantry on its armor rolled into the plaza. Immediately the infantry descended from the tanks and the machines themselves moved forward and surrounded the General and the rest of his guard, and the mage who cast the spell eminently began to sweat on his face and said something to the General.
Under the dome
"My General I don't think my barrier can withstand the fire from these steel beasts for long if they attack." Annoyed the general just looked at him like he was a moron. "I can just see it moron!" He paused for a moment when he saw that a human head with a strange helmet or cap on its head had leaned out of one of the vehicles and it started talking to a man wearing a strange square cap.
"What are they planning?" One of the soldiers asked. "Fuck knows." Another replied. After a long moment of waiting and groans from the mage, the tanks moved again but even tighter barriers lined up, far enough away to open fire with the cannons but close enough to prevent further march. The spell that the mage used works great for blocking passages, projectiles and allows safe evacuation of important people, every guard has at least one mage specialized in this field.
The problem with this barrier is that it is double sided, so when it is on, nothing can enter or leave it, because it stops and repels every object from both sides! Of course, the right amount of firepower, such as cannons, are capable of knocking down the barrier, but it takes many shots to destroy it, which is why it is known as the indestructible barrier.
Another major drawback is that it works best when it comes to carrying VIPs in open spaces, if it encounters a heavy enough object the mage is unable to move on and is forced to shrink the bubble around it to be able to pass.
The best way to defeat such guests was simply to block the area around the mage with heavy objects, making the barrier useless because it was impossible to pass through and the barrier could not move the objects away from it, and then wait until the mage became tired or turned off the shield himself.
Of course everyone in the New World knew of this flaw, though supposedly the Ancient Warlock Empire was able to modify their impenetrable barriers at will making this flaw non-existent in antiquity, unfortunately the knowledge of how to do this has been lost and countless scholars over the centuries have failed in their attempts to open up this property though supposedly one mage from the Holy Milishial Empire is well on his way to discovering it again.
Therefore, General Hadrian was in a quandary, or up his ass as Cena put it on the other side in his conversation with the Lieutenant commanding the armored platoon. He could wait until the Mage lost his strength and be at the mercy of his opponents but he could also risk removing the spell voluntarily and begin negotiating his surrender with the enemy and raise the barrier again if necessary.
Hadrian himself wrestled with himself in his head and weighed all the pros and cons of this and decided that dying with a song on his lips while glorious would not help the Empire or the defenders of the capital at all, and the battle was already lost from the start and simply prolonged the ordeal unnecessarily. "Corporal, take out the white scarf and hang it on your saber and start waving to the Poles."
His subordinates were surprised but when they saw the face tired after the internal battle which made even worse the appearance of the general who was already looking bad because of the battle, they did not object and the corporal obeyed the general's order. Corporal didn't know about it but general Hadrian read one of the leaflets that fell on the city before the assault and there in an open letter to the soldiers of Parpaldia the Poles gave instructions how they should announce their surrender and one of the things they should do was to hang something white high or hold it in their hands.
It was strange and funny for the general, who considered the flag of surrender as everyone in the third zone of civilization, waving the unit's banner to the left and making wide circles. Now he understood why it was enough to fly something white, because it was simpler and easy to find something white and it allowed anyone to surrender even if the unit lost its banner.
The Polish infantry that had manned the vehicles back and forth and were aiming at the Parpaldians waiting to see what would happen next started talking to each other when they saw what was happening inside. After a long moment the gap opened wider and the Lieutenant in charge of the platoon along with Captain Cena stood in front of the barrier and then in flawless though severely outdated but understandable Parpaldian said.
"I request that General Hadrian Patrenius step forward." The general reluctantly stepped forward and stood on the other side of the barrier. It was fortunate that this spell only blocks physical objects, the spell itself was often used during peace talks and accepting surrenders in the old days when one wanted to talk safely but since Parpaldia began its conquests such use of the spell had gone out of fashion.
"So what do you demand..." began the general not knowing who he was dealing with "Captain Cena 1st Assault Battalion, next to me is Lieutenant Lewandowski Commander of 4th Armored Platoon from 16th Medium Tank Regiment. Full demands will be presented by our General Szklarski but here I will only ask that you and your men lay down your weapons and leave this barrier and then come with me and my men to the General.
Hadrian nodded "And what if I refuse?" Cena shrugged his shoulders "Then we will wait until your wizard falls from exhaustion making the barrier disappear but then we will use the necessary force to overpower you and your men. We have time to do that, though your detachment from command should make it easier for us to break down the rest of the defenses." He said the whole thing in passing but you could feel the threat in that sentence agree now and you will save your miserable aristocratic ass.
Hadrian waited a long moment before replying "Sergeant, lower the barrier and let the rest of you discard your weapons." And then he drew his saber himself and as the barrier came down in a smooth motion he handed it over European style to the Captain "And you Captain Cena, I give you my weapon may it serve you better." The Captain nodded slightly surprised and accepted the gift.
Then a Mi-2 transport flew into the yard, "General please come with me we will fly the helicopter to the General where you will discuss with the General the terms of the weapons and their submission." The general in turn asked what about my men. Cena only smiled sincerely in response "Comrade Lieutenant will take care of them." Then Cena and the other commandos escorted the general back to the Mi-2.
Meanwhile, the guardsmen joined the hundreds of prisoners of war who were to be transported to Altaras to the prison camps there. Contrary to the fears of the soldiers, Altaras received them with dignity, even though some called for the return of all the damage done to them by their demands, but the King, to whom the First Secretary had clearly passed on his advice, forbade such actions under penalty of death.
And General Hadrian, after the talks, announced at 17:30 the laying down of arms by the garrison of the capital, and by 20:00, after getting rid of the last resisting ones who continued to fight against orders, the Polish People's Army finally took the capital and on the top of the imperial palace flew the Polish Flag. The general himself was sent to Poland as a prisoner of war, where he was to wait until the end of the war.
The news about the fall of the capital caused quite a commotion in Parpaldi and gave the partisans from the conquered countries the wind in their sails to fight against the hated oppressor, and the cordial support given by Poland only further ignited the fires of war in the north, binding the huge forces of the Imperial Army.
In turn, this news was received with incredulity, and the HME and the world center in general turned their attention more broadly to the east, receiving with alarm the news of the serious defeats of Parpaldia. Whereas in Mu the news of the fall of the capital of the evil empire was welcomed. The same was also true in Japan, where the public, hearing of the scale of the crimes committed by the Parpaldia in recent centuries, began to unilaterally support Poland in her crusade against the Parpaldia.
But the news about the fall of Esthirant caused a total euphoria in Altaras which inhabitants started to celebrate for three whole days and the King issued a supportive statement because of it.
In turn in Poland itself, against all expectations this news was celebrated briefly both in the government and staff, as well as in streets. Although the news was initially received with incredulity, the films made from the partially ruined enemy capital, where the Polish People's Army made a small victory parade, were eventually accepted as news that this time the authorities were not exaggerating with their propaganda on television, radio and in the press.
But in the end they were cautious, many Poles still could not believe that Poland is fighting a victorious war practically alone and nothing can stop it, memories of World War II are still too fresh, not even 20 years have passed since its end for PRL and many still remember those times and this "victory".
The General Staff welcomed the collapse of the capital, which would allow it to use its huge harbor to shorten supply lines and prepare another offensive to the north that would finally kill off the collapsing Parpaldia.
Meanwhile, Edward Gierek and Minister of Internal Affairs Stanisław Kowalczyk and Minister of Foreign Affairs Stefan Olszowski were drafting how Parpaldia was to be subjugated and what to do with the countries that were sure to emerge after its collapse.
West of the Second Area of Civilization otherwise the continent of Mu
20 Mar 1975 P.C/ 1640 C.C.Y.
ORP Orzeł
The Polish submarine, no longer young, was submerged some 100 meters under water. The submarine itself was sent on a reconnaissance mission in order to identify the naval forces of the so-called Gra Valkas Empire. This country was the object of Mustan's (as Mu's country is called in Poland) concern, and the news itself was passed on to Poland, which greatly alarmed the Polish ruling forces, and later the same thing happened in Japan.
Therefore, upon Mu's request for help, Poland sent two of its four submarines for reconnaissance, an act which went unnoticed by Mu's rulers and incidentally contributed to improving relations between the countries. Needless to say, the mere fact of the existence of such submarines and the disclosure of their numbers was quite a shock to Mu, especially since Japan, despite the friendly greeting, admitted to having such submarines only after the Poles revealed their possession.
Of course, Mustan understood the reason for keeping it a secret and that's why they gave the Poles and later the Japanese, who had been persuaded by Poland to do so (or more accurately, gave them an effective excuse), access to a secret Naval Base in the northwest of their country on a small island not officially shown on the maps.
It is from this base that a combined Polish-Japanese submarine team, consisting of four Polish submarines, OORP Orzeł and Kondor, and Japanese Uzushio and Makishio, set out as scouts.
The base itself, for obvious reasons, had to have additional upgrades and adjustments for resupplying these ships and docking them. The scouting operations themselves were initiated in December of last year at the time Japan conducted Operation Momotarou against the so-called Demon King. Poland, for obvious reasons, could not support Japan and the Kingdom of Topa in this crisis.
The very appearance of something like this alarmed the Polish government and strengthened the pro-Japanese faction in the Ruling Party. This faction together with the pro-Polish faction is trying to oppose the aspirations of megalomania which erupted with unprecedented force in the People's Republic of Poland, reminding of the one over 40 years ago in the IIRP which led Poland to the II World War as one of the great losers of this war.
Well, let's say, to be the first against Germany and to dream about superpowers and thus to try to behave like one of them, despite the lack of power needed to do so, is probably a sign of megalomania?
Or stupidity, which in Poland from the time of regaining independence in 1918 was not difficult, just remember the infamous Kiev Expedition, which as a result of choosing the wrong target of attack caused the outbreak of Polish-Bolshevik War and almost would be the nail in the coffin for the newly regained independence, although the idea was right, because the Soviets wanted to march west through Poland.
But enough here of fussing about this little-known abroad fact called Polish megalomania, which many healthy thinking Poles drive to madness.
Let's go back to the ORP Orzeł floating underwater, the ship itself was heading for a busy trade and supply route from Gra Valkas to the occupied territories of the island kingdoms of Panganda and Leifor. According to the spies, the pride of the Empire's fleet would be sailing that day, so the entire squadron was sent out along the route to await their target.
Grade Altastar as their target was called single-handedly destroyed the entire fleet of the superpower, of course Poland and Japan received information and pictures from Mu about this ship, but the Admirals of those countries wanted to gather information about it on their own. Moreover, they wanted to test the effectiveness of Gra Valkas sonar in detecting submarines.
So far, they kept their distance and approached the ports, and now they wanted to see how they would react on the high seas when there was an "accidental" sneak attack of a submarine.
So far, so quiet and all ships are operating according to plan and the enemy has not betrayed the fact that he noticed the Japanese, who were stationed closer to the home territory of Gra Valkas. Now the Polish ships were to begin their probing operations.
The entire crew of the Orzeł began to get a little nervous waiting for their time, fortunately Captain Adam Lang kept the crew calm with his will and spirit, but inside he was getting a little nervous himself. He had had the opportunity to watch the Japanese submarines himself and prayed that he would not have to fight them. Under no circumstances did he expect to win in a battle with them, unless by deception, some deus ex machina that would fool the Japanese Crew giving him a chance to kill them.
They could not be heard on sonar, nor could they be detected by radar, and in practice they were "eliminated" time and again by the Japanese during training. Needless to say, this hurt his pride as a submariner. Because during the maneuvers, apart from patrols, only three times he was lucky to catch the Japanese, and to say he was lucky would be an understatement, but even so, the table so far said 3:90 when it came to victories.
That's why the news that the Japanese had succeeded didn't calm him down at all, because these devils couldn't be found easily by themselves unless they were really close, but usually then they were already "dead". You should know that ORP Orzeł was commissioned in 1954 and came to Poland in 1962, after it had been converted into what the West called Whiskey V.
And both Japanese ships were built in 2000 and 2001, which is a long time when it comes to submarine design! And the Orzeł is not in the best condition, just two years ago due to hull wear they had to reduce the maximum draught of the Orzeł to 120 meters underwater from the previous 170 meters. And still diving to 120 meters is not so safe.
Fortunately, he heard that Poland and Japan intend to enter into a deeper than before technological and military cooperation (that is, they begin to seriously cooperate and not just make pretty faces in front of the cameras) The Polish Admiralty intends to order in Japan new submarines adapted to the Polish conditions, together with the partial technological transfer that will allow Poland to develop its own new vessels of this class.
If this fact comes true, the Polish Captain will rejoice like a child. Of course, he was not angry about his ship but he saw that she was just old and slowly turning into a floating undersea coffin and there was nothing to replace her with. As for the fight with Japan, of course he knew, as well as anyone who could add two to two in Poland, that the only way to win was to have the atomic bombs, or to throw as many people as possible and hope that the losses suffered by Japan would force her to withdraw.
Of course provided the Poles agree to lose their lives in such a conflict, which Lang doubted, he rather thought it would end in a revolution, or counter-revolution, and overthrowing the Communists by the People.
Lang doesn't really believe in democracy, he knew how it ended in Poland last time, and in this world democracy in the Polish version is a straight ticket to disaster for Poland. Besides, damn it, he lives in a people's "democracy"! Of course, he keeps his thoughts behind his teeth, not wanting to meet sad gentlemen in coats and dark glasses.
All his thoughts and pondering were interrupted by the alarm raised by senior seaman Waldemar Apolinarski, who detected an approaching group of enemy ships from Grade Altastar in the middle of the formation. Surprisingly ordinary civilian ships and only two destroyer squadrons to assist could be seen around him.
The lack of more heavy ships besides the superdrednot was a surprising fact after all, making that ship move certainly costs money, which is why Captain Lang's red light went on right away. This convoy is carrying something so important that they've assigned their best and most famous ship to escort it.
He wondered for a moment what could be aboard the convoyed ships, but his thoughts were interrupted by his duty to obey orders. He quickly gave orders to the helmsman to move slowly towards the convoy. He intended to join it underwater and sail with the convoy for a while and then disengage and move to a safe distance to view the enemy ships from a distance with the periscope.
Of course he guessed that the Japanese had already taken pictures of the ships and what was on board with their cameras but he preferred to see for himself what was there, anyway it would be interesting to see if the Valkas could detect the periscope of a submarine from the early Cold War.
He gave the appropriate command quickly and after a short while the sailor Stanislaw King looking through the periscope began to giggle "You Japs were right it looks like a European version of Yamato" Said King after a while.
"What do you mean comrade sailor?" Asked Lang curiously
"What I mean Comrade Captain is that this Grade Atlastar looks a hell of a lot like the Yamato, their largest battleship from the Second War, when the Japanese showed me pictures on their smartphones and compared them to pictures that one had somehow obtained I thought they were kidding me." Replied the already calmed King who began to look at the cargo ships and destroyers.
Meanwhile the political officer Lieutenant Wlodzimierz Czarnecki looked suspiciously at the King "And how did you talk to the Japanese, you don't know Japanese!"
King looked away from the periscope for a moment and replied with a smile, "Well, I don't, Comrade Officer, but vodka is a very good universal translator and makes my broken English and theirs sufficient to understand each other.
The whole crew on the bridge, including the political officer, went into laughter, which also allowed the air to escape from the stress balloon. After a brief moment of laughter everyone quieted down again waiting for orders.
"Helmsman, bring us under the convoy carefully. And you Lieutenant Nojman, check enemy communications to see if they have spotted anything." Moved the Captain calmly. The periscope was quickly stowed into the hull and the ship began to sail slowly and carefully. If those on top spotted anything they would be warned by sonar, moreover it was noted that the Valkas had radars and quite advanced ones at that, though obviously inferior to the Polish and Japanese.
They sailed on like this for a good few minutes, which to the people inside seemed like hours, as it always does in such situations, and when it came to action time could sometimes suddenly shoot forward, which clearly intrigued Lang.
After about 15 minutes they finally sailed close to the convoy and began to turn to follow it, while the Polish communications specialists began to eavesdrop on the Valkas. The ciphers of the Gra Valkas had already been broken independently by both Poland and Japan a few weeks ago. In this way the conversations of their adversaries became quite comprehensible.
Why fairly? Well, the Gra Valkas language is both similar and dissimilar to the languages of the rest of the New and Old World. It has features in common with the languages of the Old and New Worlds, but at the same time it is so different that it is impossible to say which language it resembles.
As an example, the name of the pride of the fleet is Gra Valkas Grande Atlastar, which in Valkas means Glory to the Great Country and or something like that if the translators understood the language correctly. The coincidence of the name with an astronomical phenomenon turned out to be accidental.
This utter quirkiness of the Valkas language is driving the people responsible for cracking their ciphers and translating their language crazy. Names that seem to refer to astronomy actually have nothing to do with it, or so it has been observed.
Fortunately, this was not a problem for Lang and his crew, he was only there to get information and check the effectiveness of Valkas' detection of Polish submarines.
After a long stay they discovered that either the Valkas sonar was not very sensitive, or at least not very sensitive to the crew, or they were deliberately ignoring them because they did not consider them to be submarines. This was easily discovered when they began to swim a little more than their previous stealth speed, and their opponent did not react to this.
They followed them for about two hours before they slowly approached the intercept area of ORP Kondor, when they were more or less close to it they broke away from the convoy and began to sail south to miss the trail.
They were not disturbed by Valkas for quite a while until suddenly one of the destroyers for some reason dropped a depth charge near them. It was a big surprise and the Orzeł stood down for a moment to hide, only after a long while did they start to move forward when it became clear that the rest of the convoy was still moving, but one of the destroyers broke away to approach the one that had dropped the depth charge.
The sailors responsible for eavesdropping on communications were flooded with new and unfamiliar words, but from the tone of the radio operators of the first destroyer they deduced that there had been some kind of accident or explosion.
It was only when they sailed off into the distance that they saw from the periscope what had happened. It turned out that there had been an explosion on the ship, which caused a serious hole in the hull and, more precisely, in the stern of the ship where the depth bomb launcher is located.
They were fortunate that none of the shrapnel drowned and did not hit the hull of their ship, but for Valkas it was bad luck, a simple oversight or a sailor's mistake that caused it.
They made a note of the entire event to be able to relay the information later. The speed and confidence with which the other ship came to their aid was a clear sign that this was not the first such event in their fleet. The ORP Orzeł then sailed in an arc towards the Mu Secret Naval Base to bring back new information.
Welcome after a long period without a chapter, well the lack of ideas what to do next did not help the development, but fortunately after the expedition to the Beskids came all the ideas that are waiting to become part of this story. But enough of rambling - time for explanations!
BWP-1 is the abbreviation for Bojowy Wóz Piechoty-1/Infantry Fighting Vehicle-1, the world's first tracked vehicle of this type, unfortunately it got old very fast and its western counterparts of the next decade surpassed it easily, particular problem was its anti-tank missiles which as mentioned have over 500 meters of minimum distance required to be able to fire, that's a hell of a lot considering that its western counterparts had only 50 meters! Tiny were the ones to replace in this case and here I have the sad part of the story unfortunately.
They have been used in the Polish Army to this day in an unchanged form for over 50 years! That is, since the first vehicles left the factory in the USSR from the production line. Its successor to this day, for reasons of constantly changing requirements, is still in the process of being invented, although the latest project of heavy BWP Borsuk raises hopes (its prototype was created). For now, it was exchanged for KTO Rosomak, but everyone knows that infantry transporter, despite significant unification, is still not the same as a combat vehicle. And if you are wondering what requirement is unchangeable, I can answer that it is the requirement for buoyancy, as BWP-1 is to be an amphibious vehicle.
The People's Republic of Poland itself was on the last straight to launch its license production in the late sixties, but in the end it did not happen.
PKM - Soviet Universal Machine Gun created in 1961 in Kalashnikov factory, in Poland produced since 1968, PKM itself is modernized version produced since 1969. Standard Warsaw Pact Machine Gun. It can be used both as a Handgun and Heavy Machine Gun. It is still in service in Poland and we have even made a version for NATO cartridges - UKM-2000. It differs in cartridges and ammunition belt and bullet feed mechanism, which makes it even easier to manufacture.
Czerwone Berety/Red Berets- unlike in the USSR, red berets were worn by paratroopers and not Blue berets as in the Soyuz. The name itself is colloquial and has been adopted to refer to them as such. Even in Wargame it is used as a name for paratroopers. The elite of the elite in the Polish Army
And at the end, a little bit traditionally, a joke from the Eastern Bloc
- Why don't communists go to hell?
- Because they would start building such a paradise there that the devils wouldn't stand it.
And now a sincere thank you to everyone who lived to the end and look forward to the next chapters of this perhaps good story.