Chuma Village

The air filled with the sound of a light rain storm and rhythmic humm of helicopter engines, Mi-8 helicopters landing on the outskirts of the village, their propellers blowing water and mud around. The first one had landed almost 45 minutes ago and landed the first soldiers of the first company of the Bunny Brigade, some of the girls watching sadly as the wounded Lizzy was loaded into the helicopter, Lola and Lily lifting up her stretcher to the nurses onboard. Following Lizzy was the catgirl they had found and several villagers, being evacuated.

Losha sat with her girls under an awning, Lily, Lola, Wenlo, Penn and her all sharing a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka and unwinding after the fighting. Watching the field that had become an ad hoc helicopter pad, Mi-8s landing and taking off with a rapid pace, unloading soldiers, ammo, sandbags and supplies while evacuating the wounded and civilians.

The soldiers were currently fortifying the village with sandbag positions and barbed wire, meaning that some of the dead had been left out. One imperial, having been gutted by a shot from the BTR was in the mud in front of Losha's squad, open to the air for all to see.

As one helicopter, loaded with refugees rose into the sky, another landed behind them, a group of bunnies jumping out, uniforms clean and rifles strapped across their back. They formed up into a formation, the 4 squads, 24 bunnies, standing still, before a tall, scarred bunny stepped off.

Losha's eyes widened, this was the company commander, a veteran of the wars with the empire and an old commander. Kyumo was an imposing figure, even in her late 40s her black hair and scarred body commanded her respect. She had, with Alexandrov's permission, been allowed to carry a traditional Voldoglian blade, it's steel glinting in the rain.

She yelled something at the troops, they yelled in reply before as one turning to the right and marching into town. As they walked by Losha's squad, they couldn't help but look at the resting troops. Their tan uniforms darkened with blood, rifles leaning against a wall and helmets loosely on their heads. Lola raised a toast to the new troops, the rest of the squad joining, "Welcome to the fight ladies! These imperials bleed like we do!", before kicking the imperial's body, showing his gruesome injuries. The rest of the squad let out a cheer before downing the shot.

They all had to suppress their expressions at the bitter, acrid taste. While they loved Vodka's strength, they were less than thrilled with the flavor. But it was cheap and easy to get, so they dealt with it.

The bunnies passed, and the squad went back to relaxing. Penn and Lily were sharing a conversation about some book, Wenlo and Lola, about weapons while Losha just watched the field. And the lines of refugees.

Word of the mottled men had spread, from their exploits and their 'magic staves', as such many of the villagers had fled, but those who didn't agreed to leave with the soviets, swallowing their fear as they loaded up onto the helicopters.

Soldiers were digging around the area, especially creating pits for what little armor they had. The MI-8, while an incredible piece of equipment was in no way able to carry full sized vehicles, as such the soldiers had gotten creative.

Karpov, who had command of the situation, looked at what he had to use. He had 8 squads of bunnies, only one of which had been in combat, C squad, with 47 bunnies in total. He was able to bring in an additional 32 soviet regulars, leaving him with 50 red army soldiers, armed with AK's and RPG's. He still had 3 BTRs and the PT-76. He placed one BMP on the bridge to his rear to watch it, with 2 more on each end of his line, and the PT-76 in the center, dug in to provide fire support. It was a strong position, but against possibly 2,000 soldiers? It was gonna be tough.

The rain continued to pour down as more helicopters landed, dropping supplies and picking up people. It gave Losha a moment to reflect on the past years.

Thinking back to the war, the great battles, the charges against imperial lines. The feeling as flesh parted before her blade, the din of battle. But this brought her to thoughts of the aftermath, of her clan surrounded and cut down or enslaved. Of being chained up and marched off while her sisters still fought against impossible odds, dying before the endless legions of the Saderan empire.

Her people lived on the great plains to the north, hunting and farming for a living. For a warrior bunny, to be disarmed, marked as a slave and sent underground to the depths of a mind is as close to Hardy's realm as one could get. No space to run, no sun to see. Just the rock, the endless stone, searching for veins of whatever her Saderan overlords deemed valuable. Gold, silver, gems, iron or mythril. With every piece of gold she mined, she thought of the Saderan lord who would fund an army to continue conquests with it. With every vein of iron they found, she coped with the fact that her iron would be used to cut down more enemies of the Saderans.

She had become complicit in the machine that destroyed her home.

The first weeks had been hard, but her people stayed strong. They tried to cause unrest, to attack guards. But many broke, slavery having broken them. They simply woke up, mined, ate whatever gruel the guards gave them, and slept. Many of Losha's sisters died like this. Over the years she became gaunt, where once tone muscle and splendid hair had shown, now pale skin, matted hair and a skeletal frame showed.

But one day it changed. The air had vibrated with a great roaring noise, and the guard towers erupted into flames and splinters. Guards with bows were struck down by what many considered to be the gods' work. From the heavens descended iron chariots, men in green clothes with strange staffs jumping out, fire and noise erupting from their staffs and slaughtering the guards.

Losha had seen the Soviet's that day, their power and might, but she did not at first rejoice. LIke many in the camp she merely wondered what these new masters would do.

But when they said they did not practice slavery, and were in fact here to free them, she could not contain her cheers, as the camp exploded in celebration.

The cheers died quickly however, when medics asked to see the wounded, and they saw those who were wounded in the mine or in bed.

Limbs missing, blindness, deafness, starvation. Losha aided one bunny, blinded by a whip to the eye and frail into a soviet 'helicopter', watching as it flew off.

Her people had been broken, but now they had another chance, to survive maybe even- "LOSHA!"

The bunny girl was cut from her recollecting by a yell, courtesy of a soviet soldier, standing over her, "Apologies, but Karpov needs to talk to you and the squad".

Lola, the actual commanding officer of C squad nodded, "Alright ladies, let's go. Looks like we got some work to do". The squad groaned, they had been hoping to relax for a bit longer, but the life a soldier did not allow for such peace.

Chuma Village command:

The command was situated in what used to be the tavern, right next to the bridge, at the far back of town, tucked against the river. Entering the building, C squad was greeted by Karpov, hunched over a map on a table, a radio behind him. Next to him was Company Commander Kyumo.

"Ah C squad, thanks for coming so quickly", he looked up and stepped away from the table. "Sorry to end your break early but HQ radioed earlier. According to aerial recon, the army that's coming is ahead of schedule and the defenses here aren't yet done. But that isn't the only issue, aerial images indicate that thater is also another 5,000 soldiers, including Wyverns 4 days away. We are almost surrounded, and we cant get heavy weapons into the town".

Lola piped up, "Could we abandon the town?".

Karpov shook his head, "Sadly no. This town lies at a crossroad, any travel to Italica, Rondel or Sadera from Fort Zhukov has to come through here. Therefore command has declared that this town be held. At all costs".

The words hung in the air, "Sir. What's the plan?" asked Losha, looking at the map.

"Well first I'm requisitioning 25 millimiter anti air guns. But second, I need your company to go ahead and run a delaying action on the closer army. The enemy has a cohort of scouts camped out in Milamar, 10 miles north of here",

Kyumo pointed at the map, "Our company is to march to the south of Milamar and ambush the enemy. For this battle, some of our soldiers have been given DP-28 light machine guns to help in suppressing the enemy. We will dig in along the road and annihilate their forward scouts, this should blunt the assault, as the enemy will be effectively groping around bling. With this we can land troops behind their forces during the battle for the town and wipe them out".

"What support will we have?", asked Lola. "None."

Losha spoke up next, "When do we leave?".

"In 2 hours. Go rest for now and get ready to march", said Kyumo, "It's been years since I tasted imperial blood".

5 Hours Later

"Y'know, I never complained about the long marches during the war. But after riding around in a nice BTR? I don't know how we used to do this", moaned Penn, marching behind Losha and Wenlo in the middle of a marching column. Lola and Lily were behind them, but all around were the rest of the bunny warriors. "Oh you think you have it bad?" moaned Wenlo, "They made me the machine gunner!". To emphasize the point she lifted up her DP-28 machine gun, the magazine clunking on it. "This thing unironically weighs more than a bronze breastplate".

"Wait, how do you know that? We never wore bronze armor? Actually we never wore armor, period!", said Lola.

"Don't worry about that. I absolutely did not loot a Rose Order camp during the war".

"No. Way. Okay I need some details right now", said Penn leaning forward, "I heard they have 3 servants for every knight there, and that they have a secret drink named after the princess".

"I wouldn't know about any of that. All I know is that those girls wear some really heavy armor".

"HALT!", the order came down the line, "Scramble! Into the trees! Wyverns spotted up ahead!" ordered Kyumo. All at once the column broke apart, squads running to the woods on the side of the road to evade the imperials. The wyverns had been a terror during the war with the empire, striking at will, destroying refugee columns and getting around defensive lines. Every soldier there knew to fear the beasts, like how a normal bunny fears the hawk.

C squad managed to get into a ditch, hiding under a tree, and looked up at the sky. A distant screech was heard, a pair of purple dots high up in the air. "Huh that could be an issue. Think any Migs are in the area?" joked Wenlo.

Losha shrugged before grabbing her radio, "Kyumo, do we have intel on soviet aircraft in the area?". "I believe so, can you radio in?", "On it".

Turning a knob on her radio, she swapped channels, "Karpov, do we have any aircraft in the area?". A pause before a voice replied, "That we do, need some wyvern hunting?".

"Yes sir, we are about 5 miles north of Chuma, please have the aircraft intercept 2 wyverns".

"Acknowledged, support is on the way.

The forest became quiet, all the soldiers' eyes were fixated on the 2 wyverns, and for 5 excruciating minutes they saw the beasts fly around overhead, before the air filled with the roar of soviet engines and the breaking of the sound barrier.

10,000 feet up a pair of Mig-19 fighter jets locked onto the wyverns with their air-to-air missiles, before releasing a salvo. The bunnies could see trails of smoke as the missiles followed the desperately evading wyverns before detonating, consuming the draconians beasts in fire. The jets dropped flairs, for no particular reason it seemed, before turning around and flying off.

A cheer rose from the column, seeing the mighty wyvern brought down by the might of their army. Kyumo let her troops enjoy this moment before yelling at them to get back to marching. Despite the excitement the rest of the march was not any less excruciating.

The next day, 8 am, 9 miles north of Chuma Village

The company was dug in along a wooded ridge that flanked the road from about 80 meters away, already foxholes and concealed firing positions had been dug, bunnies manning machine guns and looking down the ironsights of their rifles, trained on the road at the bottom of the ridge. On the left flank of the line, Losha and her squad knelt behind a dirt rampart, waiting for the enemy scouting force to show themselves. If rumors were to be believed, the hundred scouts were mounted skirmishers, clearly meant to run in a real fight. It was the bunnies' hope that the enemy wouldn't get the chance.

Losha shouldered her mosin nagant, looking down the sights, training it on a tree branch at about neck height if one were on horseback. With her superior hearing, she could hear the sound of hooves hitting dirt as the scouting cavalry went down the road.

The rumors were both true and false, yes the scouts were on horseback but they weren't carrying bows or crossbows. Instead, Losha noticed that they had sticks that looked an awful lot like their rifles strapped across their fronts. The soldiers themselves were imperial, wearing iron armor and helmets, shields mysteriously missing.

The soldiers had yet to notice the well hidden bunnies, more focused on their conversation than on their surroundings. Losha focused on one soldier, his helmet adorned with purple plumage. Clearly he was important, maybe a legate or a captain. Losha flipped off the safety, gently depressing the trigger.

The woods were almost silent, the peace being destroyed with a BANG! The rifle kicked into Losha's shoulder and she could almost see the bullet as it flew through the air before slamming into the enemy commander's flashy helmet, sparks kicking up before the round got through the armor, crashing through his skull and thoroughly blending his brain. The man didn't even scream, instead slumping out of his saddle.

With that first shot, a veritable torrent of lead poured out of the bunnies' rifled and machine guns, the air being filled with the chunking of DP-28s and the cracks of mosin nagants. Soldiers across the column of imperials groaned and screamed as round slammed into them, armor and chainmail buckling and breaking beneath the might of soviet firearms.

But not all the imperials were hit, many in fact forced their horses into the woods to their left, dismounting and hiding behind trees. Losha focused on one man, finally seeing what those sticks were as the man pointed one at her. "They have rifles!", she yelled ducking behind the dirt rampart, ears ringing as the enemy bullet flew over her head.

Her warning was not heard by everyone though. As Losha pushed herself back up to continue firing, she saw a riflewoman in the foxhole to her right stand up for a shot, before a bullet slammed into her shoulder, knocking the gun from her hands. Before she could even recover, another round hit her head, instantly killing her.

"Fuck! Where did they get those?!" yelled Lola, who fired off a shot that slammed into the tree her target was hiding behind.

Wenlo paused her machine gun fire, ducking down to replace the magazine, "I don't know, but we gotta find a way to beat them, we're outnumbered!". Wenlo was right, they had taken out perhaps 25 imperials in their first volley, and many more after. But the imperials still held the numerical advantage.

Losha jumped up to try a shot, but got forced down after missing by 2 shots coming her way. On her descent she saw down the bunnies' line, and the bodies that were now piling up.

Some were still moving, soldiers begging for help and water. Others were still, faces blank, hands still wrapped around their rifles. Their losses were mounting, and they were running out of time before their company would melt like winter snow.

A scream drew her from her thoughts, and she looked to see Lily falling back, blood spouting from a hole in her chest, her rifle falling to the ground uselessly.

"LILY!", yelled Lola, scrambling back to her sister. "NONONONO! C'mon stay with me!". She took out a wad of bandaging and held it to her sister's wound, the bandage quickly turning a dark crimson. Lola grabbed her hand, "Sis you can't die, stay awake!". Lola grasped Lily's right hand in her own and held it tight,

The bunnies were losing, already over a dozen of them had died, and the losses were continuing to grow. Losha found herself frozen in her foxhole, holding her gun. Penn ducked down next to her, grabbing a 5 round stripper clip from her bandolier and loading it into her rifle, closing the bolt. "LOSHA GET UP! KEEP FIGHTING!". Losha didn't answer, Penn continued, "There was a girl who told me we had a chance to fight back against the empire, so get up and fight!".

Losha willed herself up, rising on shaky legs and leaning against her rifle to get into a crouching position, leaning against the dugout wall. Wenlo's machine gun was still chugging along suppressing the imperials directly in front of them.

Losha could see where Wenlo's rounds were impacting, watching as a series of 3 rounds hit one man's chest, tearing his body open, the man screaming as he fell to the ground, the grass beneath him becoming slick with blood. Losha tried a shot, aiming down at a man too focused on reloading to notice her. She pulled the trigger, and felt a bit of satisfaction as he got thrown back, a round hitting his gut, leaving him writhing on the ground.

Before Losha could fire again, a shot whizzed past her head, forcing her back down. "FUCK THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY OF THEM!". Losha looked at her fochole, at Lola clutching her dying sister's hand, at Wenlo and Penn, firing away. "Lo' we're running low on ammo over here! We dont got much left". Losha checked her own ammo storage. She had 3 rounds left in her gun, and 2 more stripper clips. "We need to do something to change this battle! Otherwise we're just gonna get melted away!", she screamed, terrified.

Losha held back tears and grabbed her radio, "Kyumo! The enemy has rifles and we are taking heavy casualties and have low ammo, what are your orders?!". The radio was static until the bunny replied, "I know, everyone is running out! Shit".

Losha tried to focus on her commander's voice, over bullets flying, rounds hitting dirt, and Lola crying over her sister. "KYUMO! ORDERS!".

There was silence at the other end of the line, Losha jumped up, firing off a shot that missed horribly. The round hit the dirt path, kicking up a cloud of dirt, briefly obscuring her target. 'Wait a minute!'. Losha jumped down, her friends seeing a look in her eyes. "Lo what are you-". "The dirt! When we hit it a cloud gets thrown up! If we can create a cloud, we can charge down and fight them hand to hand, we're way better melee fighters!".

Losha grabbed her radio, "Kyumo! I recommend that our machine gunners shoot at the dirt to create a cloud, we will fix bayonets and charge under cover of the smoke cloud!".

The answer was instant, "Good idea, all squads, fix bayonets! Machine gunners on my mark begin shooting at the path. Create a smokescreen!".

A line of clicks resounded down the bunny positions, riflewomen deploying their foldable bayonets and preparing for a charge.

"Lo, are you sure about this?", asked Wenlo, ducking down to avoid fire. Losha nodded, "Well it's the best idea we have. Are you ready?".

Penn smiled, giving Losha a hug, "As ready as I'll ever be to charge into a line of guns!", she pulled back, "For our sisters who have died, and those in slaves. Death before defeat!" she yelled. Over the crack of gunfire her words carried across the line. Machine gunners threw up clouds of dust as the bunnies yelled, "DEATH BEFORE DEFEAT!", they yelled as they began their charge.

Wenlo began to fire her machine gun at the road, clouds of dirt kicking up with every hit. As the other gunners did the same, Losha could hear the enemies yelling, complaining about their inability to see the enemy.

Losha, Penn and every bunny that could stand rose from their positions and ran down the ridge, holding their rifles out like spears, yelling as they went down. Kyumo led the charge, drawing her sword and pointing it at the enemy, "ONWARDS!". Losha yelled, her feet propelling herself forward at speeds no man could match, searching for an enemy masked by dust. Reaching the cloud of dust, Losha did not hesitate as she ran through, squinting through the cloud.

She heard a crack of a rifle to her left and twisted, spotting the outline of an imperial soldier, having just fired a shot. She jumped forward, stabbing her bayonet, seeking out the chinks in the mans armor. The bayonet found its target, the gap between the man's breastplate and stomach armor. Flesh gave way to her bayonet and the man dropped his own rifle, hands rushing to his wound as he keeled over.

Losha withdrew her weapon, watching the man collapse to the ground, before continuing on. All around her she could hear the din of metal clashing on metal, of warriors yelling. It was a familiar sound, closer to the last war she had fought. Penn had tackled a man and stabbed him in the throat, all while a girl from another squad got surrounded by 2 men and killed, her corpse falling to the ground with an audible thud. Losha shook the view from her mind and continued on, stepping over the corpses of enemies and sisters alike.

Shots rang out around Losha as both imperial and bunny did their best to maul and beat each other into submission. The hair on the back of Losha's head stood up and she instinctively ducked, managing to dodge the butt of a rifle that an imperial was swinging. Pivoting on her left foot, she spun around and got a good look at her foe.

Not a centurion or a legate, but a simple soldier. He lacked a beard or seemingly any facial hair and didn't look a day over 16. And he looked terrified. Losha had faced imperials before, the hardened grizzled men of the legions, each one having pillaged villages and fought foes. But this boy was so clearly a new soldier. Losha hesitated, she wasn't fighting a warrior, she was fighting some kid.

The imperial took this chance, holding his rifle by the barrel, he swung it at her head again. The blow struck home, the wooden stock slamming against her steel helmet and sending Losha stumbling to the side. Losha's guard had dropped and a more experienced enemy could have killed her right there. But her foe was not experienced, and spent several crucial seconds fumbling with his weapon and trying to get another strike going.

In this time, Losha managed to recover her wits and deflected her foe's next strike with ease, the wooden stock of his rifle being directed away by the steel bayonet of her own weapon. Losha stepped forward and delivered an uppercut with her rifle stock to her foes chin. Forcing him to drop the weapon and fall back, helmet flying off.

The man scrambled backwards before Losha stepped on his chest, holding him down. The face that looked up at her had blood streaking from a broken nose and fear etched into his eyes. She raised her rifle, bayonet poised to strike her foe.

Losha paused, 'Can I really do this? Can I kill this… kid?'. She looked down and saw not a veteran warrior but a boy, probably forced off his family farm, from his mother and family, into the army. If she killed him, she'd leave a house without a son, a family lacking a piece. Should she grant mercy?

She thought back to the war, the roaring of the flames that consumed her village. The screams of her friends and neighbors as they were killed or dragged off. The loss of her home. She thought of the hundreds of bunnies back at Zhukov, lacking arms, ears, their vision. Having endured unspeakable horrors. She made up her mind.

The imperial saw the look in her eyes, and tried to scramble away, pushing against her leg but she would not budge.

She grit her teeth, and drove the bayonet down.

Later

Losha was laying against a tree with Wenlo and Penn beside her, sipping water out of their canteens and trying to ignore the thick scent of iron around them. And the dozens of corpses. They would have heard the sounds of dying soldiers, if not for the humm of truck engines, soviets having arrived to recover the dead and wounded, and provide cleanup.

The gang sported some cuts and bruises, but as nothing that a couple of days rest couldn't heal. It was the other half of the squad Losha was concerned with. Lola was gone, she'd gotten on the first truck back to Zhukov, cradling Lily. If the clearing had been bigger they could have brought in the choppers, making medevac faster.

The gang was silent, calmly watching as soviet soldiers cleaned up the field, moving dead saderans into one pile, and helping load dead bunnies onto trucks. 25 dead. That was the count, and likely more wounded would pass in the night. Out of over 60 who marched out it was a crippling number.

But right now that wasn't what the soviets were concerned with. More bunnies were being freed from slave camps all the time, they'd recoup. No. It was the rifles.

"Anyone know how in the hells they got rifles?", asked Wenlo, fiddling with a bullet in her hands. Losha shook her head, "Nope, they dont look like our mosins, thats for sure. Way longer, no attached bayonet and a weird bolt handle. Why is it bent?". Losha picked up her own rifle, sporting a few new cuts and fiddled with the bold handle, "Straight, lift up, pull back, push and down. Easy, why are these imperial ones so weird? And why do they use different bullets?".

Penn chimed in, "Um I was listening in on the soviets earlier and they were talking about the same thing. But they did mention the name of these things, you're right they aint mosin nagants".

Wenlo looked confused, "Then what the hell are they? And where are they from?".

Penn paused, "Well they called them Springfields, and they're from some place called 'The United States'.

Booom plot twist, this shiz is gonna be a balanced fight now! Also if you havent read the original story you are gonna be so confused next time it wont be funny. SO GO READ IT. It'd really good!

Anyways, catch yall next time!