"You did what?" Alexandra angrily snarled at Ankara. She was meeting with her face to face as she seemed mad at her. Ankara scrunched over as she didn't know what she wanted to say next.
"Yeah, I sensed that you attacked Gisela and we retaliated because of it. We debated what we should do and now that we did it, what are you going to do? Attack us? We'll be faster than you could mobilize your students to the field." Ankara taunted Alexandra that she had a much faster army she could rely on. Alexandra looked at Ankara as the latter seemed to smirk at her. Alexandra drew her saber before she looked at Ankara with hatred in her eyes.
"If you want to fight me so badly, we'll meet on the field. Today!" Alexandra shouted while pounding her left fist onto the desk while holding the saber with her other hand. Ankara scoffed before she walked off. Saunders now had to deal with three enemies instead of two.
The battle was going to take place on some snowy hilltops. Alexandra had her students spread out on these hills while trying to figure out what to do about the situation.
"Man, it's freezing out today." Kay began speaking. She shivered as she tried to figure out what she was going to do next. Alexandra looked at her as she had her winter gear out to prepare for such hazardous conditions.
"Get used to it. Not everything is going to be sunny outside." Alexandra puts it bluntly to Kay. The students had their rifles and PM M1910's ready on standby. Alexandra's team was relatively spread out as she thought she wasn't going to need the middle schoolers this time around. Lola had her own hilltop to command from with Alexandra in the center and Megumi to the left of her.
"Okay students, we're tasked with holding off the attack that might come our way. We are also to advance once we know where Kebab plans on attacking so we can draw the pressure off of the one getting attacked." Alexandra explained to the students what their plan was. Kay was angry that Lola was in charge of her own hilltop and not her. Jajka was polishing her rifle and Mika had fixed the bayonet to hers.
Ankara meanwhile however was preparing to advance on just one of the groups.
"We got the message from the scouts as Lola's flank is the weakest, we'll throw everything we have at it so we can break through." Ankara told the students. However, unlike Saunders, they weren't well prepared for the cold and many students were shivering. "We'll begin the attack once the artillery stops firing; we'll advance while it fires at the hill." The students were too busy shivering to do much of anything as Ankara was preparing to make an advance on the hill. Then the guns began to fire at Lola's hill. Ankara's students began to advance in the freezing snow.
Lola meanwhile was trying to figure out how to react if one of the hills was hit, it was clear she was nervous. She looked up to hear a whirring sound coming to the hill. It was a sound she was all too familiar with.
"Take cover!" Lola shouted. The students began to huddle down into their trenches as they needed to avoid getting struck with firecracker artillery. The shells began to land, exploding all over. Lola kept her head down while the snapping of wood could be heard. She looked up briefly before she noticed one of the trees was about to timber over. "Scatter!" Lola shouted. Everyone began to zig-zag to get out of the way as the tree's wood snapped and the tree fell over, straight onto the trench. Thankfully, they were able to get away in time. The shells continued to explode all over as the girls remained in cover. Lola was still clutching her rifle as she didn't know when this was going to be over.
Alexandra meanwhile noticed that a bulk of the Kebab students were marching on Lola. She knew that Ankara's team was marching to take one hilltop. She placed her binoculars down before she looked at her team.
"We're advancing down the mountain, Ankara's barrage has definitely given herself away and now the artillery were easy pickings, the barrage from the Saunders artillery opened up. The kebab artillery crews looked up to see they had been spotted.
"Do you think this was a bad idea?" One of the artillery gunners asked her friend.
"Yep, I believe so." She replied, the shell landed and exploded, the artillery crews were quickly being wrecked. Alexandra noticed this as the guns were being blown up as Ankara was losing a lot of her artillery.
"Perfect." Alexandra told them with a smile. She looked behind before she began speaking. "Okay, we'll be advancing on Kebab as it should be a means to getting Ankara's attention and some of her forces away from Lola. Megumi radioed to me that she's beginning her advance and she's heading down the hill, we must prepare to do the same." Alexandra told the group before she went over to her horse and mounted it, she was going to let the students go first as the cavalry were going to exploit holes made in the front lines. Alexandra got out the whistle before blowing it. Jajka took the lead as the students began to exit their trenches and race down the hill. Kay followed suit with Mika following closely behind. Megumi's group was preparing to slam into the relatively weak flank of Kebab's team.
The Kebab students raised the alarm and began firing away with their rifles and machine guns. A couple students from Megumi's group fell as Megumi pulled out a firecracker grenade, pulled the pin and tossed it into the trench. The Kebab students looked to where the grenade was and it exploded, that was one section of the trench gone. Other students came along and tossed their grenades at the trench works and at the machine gun positions. The Kebab students didn't know what was happening as they were getting taken out. Some decided to retreat but it was unknown how many will escape.
Ankara's main group meanwhile decided to launch their attack against Lola's group believing she was the weakest group. She was oblivious to the fact that the flanks of the group were getting ripped apart as she pushed for the attack. She turned around and counted the students she had, she had significantly less students than what she started this offensive with.
"Where are the Armenian students?" Ankara asked, but nobody decided to say anything about it. Ankara shrugged her shoulders before she decided to make the charge, the others were shivering from the cold, they were in no condition to fight. "Ahh whatever, we should move on." Ankara drew her saber and called for the group to charge. The Kebab students began to charge up the hill as Lola peeked her head up from the trench. She grabbed the rifle before pointing it down at the hill of the charging students. The rifles and machine guns opened fire as they were now concentrating their firepower on Ankara.
"How do you like it now?" Lola asked before firing the rifle, the plastic pellet knocked a student out before she cycled the bolt. The other students tried to make their way up the hill as Ankara's only route was forward. The Maxim guns continued to fire away as one burst was all that was needed to take down a student. Ankara looked on before looking behind, all of her students were getting slaughtered in this mess. Fidgeting for a second, she turned and continued the charge up the hill, in an effort to finish the job.
The Armenia students however were standing around as they had deserted Ankara's force and got themselves stuck in the cold. These isolated bands of students were waiting around. They heard the footsteps of approaching students as their feet crunched in the snow. The two girls turned to see Megumi and her group approach them.
"Are you two going to shoot at us or not?" Megumi asked as the rest of her group continued to charge ahead.
"We're just going to do nothing." The first girl said to Megumi. Megumi was surprised as these students easily rolled over and surrendered to her.
"Nothing?" Megumi asked. The two students nodded before they placed their rifles at their feet.
"Yes nothing, we kind of don't like Ankara and thus we're surrendering to you." The first girl told Megumi that they weren't willing to fight and were going to hand themselves in. Megumi was surprised before she knew these students didn't want to fight.
"Come with me to the rear, this clearly isn't the field for you." Megumi told the two students; the others went and grabbed their rifles and took them away. These students were grouped up as they were brought to the rear, they had decided not to fight and instead were turning themselves to the enemy in large numbers. For Megumi, this was easier than she had expected.
Ankara meanwhile was watching the slugging match as her students had to give up the charge on the hill and were going in for the second shot. One of the scouts came over as she began speaking to Ankara.
"Ankara, Alexandra, she has broken through the perimeter and is going to cut us off, we need to retreat." The scout told her. Ankara froze, her nemesis had forced a hole in her defensive line and was going to encircle them. Ankara knew she needed to give up.
"All students, call off the assault, retreat." Ankara told the students to give up. The students heard the message and began racing themselves down in the opposite direction. Lola had finished reloading her rifle when she spotted the enemy was fleeing from the field.
"Everyone, fix bayonets, we're going to get them." Lola gave the order; the students attached their bayonets before they began to leap from their trenches and chase Ankara and the rest of her team down. The crowd of students cried as they surged under their own momentum like an avalanche. The Kebab students who were exhausted weren't bound to get anywhere fast. Up ahead was Alexandra's cavalry group which was racing to cut off the only road away from the field. She had been reinforced with armored cars as they were going to assist with the breakout.
"We're almost there, we only have a little farther to go and we should be out of here." Ankara told her students as they continued to race their way out of the area. Numbed by the cold and going insane, they decided to run along the road. Then the armored cars opened fire with their machine guns, trapping what remained of Ankara's students. Lola and her group had quickly caught up and sealed the trap as they were firing away with their rifles
"Going somewhere?" Alexandra asked, Ankara and her group were surrounded on all sides. She didn't know who she was going to fight in order to get her group out, so she decided to make a risky maneuver.
"Charge At Lola." Ankara called out, the students began charging at Lola's flank in the hope that they were going to break out of the trap easily, but this was the sort of order Alexandra was needing, the machine guns on the armored cars began opening fire at the trapped students as hundreds were cut down like blades of grass under the hail of plastic pellets. Lola and her group began firing in the opposite direction at the charging students, to Ankara there was no way out of this. They were all mowed down.
Lola and Alexandra regrouped together and advanced on the front as they were the last to cross the frontier, the war had entered into a new phase and Ankara's front had been pushed back. Saunders had declared a victory in this battle and Ankara as a result was fuming.
"We managed to drive Ankara back from her positions and we're now beginning the advance, a slow one but it is an advance." Megumi began. "Plus, the reason why we were able to advance was the reason that a good portion of the team had surrendered without fighting."
"What did they say?" Alexandra asked.
"They said they weren't willing to fight and decided to give up their weapons." Megumi responded. Lola came running in as she had news. "What is it?" Megumi asked her friend. Lola began to speak as she decided to update them on what was going on.
"Tsarevich Alexei has reported that his school had fought the Ausztria-Magyar students as fierce fighting for the Carpathian passes took place; they lost but regained Czernowitz." Lola began to report the fierce back and forth fighting that was going on. Lola continued to speak. "The Dual Alliance attacked the Serbian gang again, but Milica and her students were able to repulse the attack and Gisela was hurt during the fighting."
"So, Gisela isn't going to be making any sort of advances?" Megumi asked if this was going to be true. Lola nodded as this was correct.
"Also, the fighting between BC Freedom, Maginot, St. Gloriana, Waffle Academy and Kuromorimine have ended in stalemate with trench systems running from the coast to Switzerland." Lola had reported this as news.
"Looks like Kuromorimine isn't going to be getting that quick victory they have desired. But this could be the beginning of a very long war." Megumi sighed. She didn't know what to make of it. Lola looked on as she didn't know what to make of it, a long war was something she didn't desire but they were making progress by keeping their front much more mobile than what Earl Gray had planned out.
Meanwhile, Manami and Runa had decided to speak to the Kaiser Principal about one of their student's performances. Manami was fiddling around with a pencil while Runa was making her case.
"Can we please have Kaya-san transfer to Kuromorimine, the injuries she had sustained made her an excellent fighter on the field and Kuromorimine would be more than pleased to have her on the Sensha-Do team. Wilhelm II wasn't pleased with the request. Runa continued to explain. "I'll take her on as my apprentice and if not, my apprentice will train her." Runa pleaded to have this one brave girl to fight alongside them.
"Look Runa, as much as you want her, Olivia's just too young for Kuromorimine." Wilhelm began. "She's only 12 and still needs to complete her studies. She is in no shape to be immediately sent to Kuromorimine." Runa felt bummed out as she wasn't going to get the student she desired. Manami looked at her friend almost as if she didn't get the prize she desired and instead, Manami decided to compromise.
"Okay Wilhelm. Since Runa's deal fell through and you refuse to hand her over to us, let's make a compromise to make both sides happy." Manami began. Wilhelm lifted his head to see what Manami had to say and what the deal was going to be.
"What's the deal then?" Wilhelm asked out of curiosity.
"The deal is that Olivia Kaya transfers to Kuromorimine as we picked her out for her skills on the field. Only if she gets to finish her studies and graduates in your school first." Manami laid out the situation for Wilhelm. He began to think about it for a moment as it was a means to giving his best female student to Kuromorimine but at the same time allowing her to complete her studies. This was a deal he was happy with.
"Okay, that's a deal." Wilhelm told Manami that he was happy with the arrangement. Manami smiled but Runa was a little mad.
"Why are you going to allow her to continue her studies, by the time she gets to Kuromorimine, we would have already graduated." Runa told Manami that this arrangement wasn't going to properly work due to the fact that they weren't going to be in Kuromorimine by the time Olivia was going to arrive within a couple of years. Manami looked at Runa and she began speaking again.
"We can't just have Wilhelm hand her over to us when she doesn't know a single thing about Sensha-Do. Plus, Wilhelm still wants her to complete her classes first/" Manami explained to Runa that they weren't going to take a student who wasn't ready to be trained in their fine arts unless she finished her skills first. It was like taking a private who had talent and skill and immediately making that private the general of the army. That private must've wept when it would learn that it didn't have the leadership or experience to lead such a force. That was the situation with Olivia. Manami then began speaking to Wilhelm. "Any news about her? Will she be ready to fight again?" Manami asked.
"Her arm has gotten stronger, and she will be joining the field of battle tomorrow after sitting out for a few days. Though I wish for her role to be limited as her arm is going to take some time to heal." Wilhelm explained that he didn't want the student to be getting straight into the action as her injuries were still healing. Manami nodded.
"Can she bend her elbow and hold stuff without any pain in that arm?" Manami asked. Wilhelm began to think about it before he began speaking again.
"I don't know for sure but you can try your best to keep her occupied so she doesn't see the field which will allow her broken arm to continue to heal." Wilhelm explained that they needed to have her lead from a safe distance while she recovered. Manami nodded.
"Will do, sir." Manami replied. Manami and Runa had left the room as they needed a new plan to help strike at Saunders. Runa had mentioned Gisela's second defeat at the hands of the Serbian Gang and their failed attempt to take Warsaw which left her alliance exhausted. Now a new plan had to be devised to try throwing the balance off for Saunders once more.
Manami knew she needed to step it up for Gisela who was failing as a result.
[A/N]: A pretty short chapter for you, there isn't much action going on with this section of the front plus I didn't know what to write for this, It feels like the Caucasus front will be the least interesting theater of war. I hope to not cover this front too much, but I have to as Kebab is now an enemy of Saunders.
Sorry for not updating this in a month, currently working on another fanfiction which you will be seeing some sparse updates from this assuming you're still reading it while I work on the other story. Anyways I might be getting chapters out a bit faster but that depends on the mood at this point and if I finish the other story first. I hope you understand. Let's see if you miss this. See you later.