Megumi and Alexei had marched across the bridge and they were now digging in the artillery and placing down their tents where they were going to rest up before their groups were called into action. Several of the students were sitting around while the others prepared the food, they made sure to bring four days of food as a back-up, cooks and medical personnel were also present to prepare a student's injuries and get them to safety.

"Okay we're going to be splitting up. Alexei, you're moreover concentrating on heading to the right and securing the territory that way while we head to the left and straight to test their forces." Megumi began. She laid out where everybody was going and what the objectives were going to be.

"You got it." Alexei responded. Alexei took about a hundred students with him as this was going to be his regiment taking some territory ahead, it wasn't much as he was holding the others back in reserve and to act as an emergency Megumi placed their new flag down, it was black white and gold with three stripes along it. This was going to be their main base.

"Okay, Mika, I want you to take your sharpshooters first and help me assault the hill completely. Kay, you will flank around and assault the hill from the rear. Alexandra, you will prevent any reinforcements from reaching the hill." Megumi gave the orders. Everyone nodded and they began to move out to the first hill they needed to capture.

Megumi and her group went first as the other groups were going to flank around. Kay was going to take positions on another side of the hill and Alexandra was going to gather recon on the area. Mika was behind and Jajka was going to act as a reserve and reinforcements in case something went wrong. However what Megumi didn't realize was the fact that Kebab was on the hill and on high alert. One of the lookouts spotted something moving in the distance.

"Hey, do you think this is some kind of Turkish Gambit?"

"I don't exactly know but whatever it is, Saunders is getting into range as we own this hill."

"Well Ankara said that we should begin firing so let's go ahead." The student pulled out a Martini Henry rifle and fired it, just moments later, the students began firing in unison as they had managed to catch Megumi by surprise.

"Well so far so good. I think we should be able to…" Before Megumi could finish speaking, one of the students collapsed as a few more were knocked off of their feet just moments later. "Find some cover! Fast!" Megumi and the others darted off. Suddenly some firecracker shells landed as they began to explode, sending students flying if they didn't get into cover fast enough.

"They were expecting us this entire time!" The students ran off into some bushes as the students were taking shots at the defenders of the hill. One of the Kebab students was struck in the temple and fell over. Megumi knew she had to quickly reorganize her students so they didn't fall victim to the hill.

"Artillery! Artillery! We have been ambushed. We request the six pounder guns to open fire on the hill to soften the defenses." Megumi pleaded for the artillery to do their job and help out the attackers as they were pinned down by incoming fire.

"Artillery firing." One of the students called out. Megumi looked up to see the shrill of shells flying overhead, it wasn't good, the shells belonged to Kebab. The shells began exploding in midair as pieces of the detonated firecracker began raining down.

"Shrapnel!" Megumi shouted. The pieces managed to strike a couple of students while they were inching forward to keep the attack up. Then their own shells began flying overhead, they were flying past the hill. Megumi knew they weren't being accurate. "Oh no." She muttered. At the redoubts where the students were taking a defensive position, things seemed to be normal as the students were polishing their field guns.

"Well the Sultana would be happy that we got Saunders pinned down, they're advancing nowhere so far."

"Ankara is picking up the news that Saunders is trying to assault the hill, they have them contained for the time being."

"You said it well. They'll never take our defenses despite the fact that their coalition of theirs outnumbers us three to one." She paused as she heard the whirling of artillery shells raining down on them. "Do you hear that?" The Saunders artillery shells began exploding when they touched the ground, sending pieces of the redoubt and Kebab students flying when they were struck.

"Saunders is softening up this area so they could attack us later." The Kebab students were confident that their great redoubt was going to hold on despite the fact that the enemy was shelling them. One of their artillery guns was blown to pieces as the students attempted to stand firm for an enemy that was never coming. After a few minutes, the artillery had stopped, the students stood firm as they prepared for Saunders to attack. As the minutes ticked by, no one showed up.

"Where are they?"

"Don't know but we might get nobody, let's take the time to repair the redoubts." The students decided to salvage what they could and make temporary fixes to their defenses as well as repairing some of their artillery.

"I'm sending an extra hundred students to reinforce the hill in case those students get mauled." The hundred or so students began to make their march toward the hill. Megumi was truly on her own.

Kay meanwhile had arrived at the eastern bank of the hill. Megumi's main force had lost twenty five students so far and Mika's group lost about six.

"Megumi is pinned under intense fire. It will be our job to storm up the hill and take it so we can silence the artillery." Kay began laying out the objectives for her group. What she didn't realize was the fact that the artillery guns at the top of the hill had been turned on them as they began to climb their way up.

"Fire!" The two guns began firing at Kay's group thinking they were the bigger threat and that Megumi's students could be left alone. The artillery shells began to land all over as Kay's group was getting blown apart.

"Artillery! Keep the formation!" Kay called out, she and the others that remained whipped out their Berdans and began to fire at the artillery gunners, While the cannons were reloading, shots began to ring out and the artillery gunners and loaders began to fall, several students came forth with their lever action rifles and began firing on the sharpshooters. Their lever guns had a higher rate of fire and more ammunition they could dispense. Several sharpshooters were taken down within mere moments of each other as Kay finished reloading and fired, taking down one of Kebab's students, they continued to fire as they were getting picked off one by one. Megumi knew that Kebab couldn't keep their attention as Mika was picking off the students that were firing at Kay.

"Their defenses cannot hold, now is our chance, attack!" Megumi called out. The students in her group began to rush their way up the hill while Kay's group were just mere meat shields. After a minute of charging up the hill, the Kebab students turned their heads and saw that Megumi was upon them.

"They're upon us!" The group fired away and took out a couple more students who were shot and taken out of the war but Megumi and her group reached the top and began firing at the kebab students at the top. The remaining students looked up as the Saunders students were leaping into their positions and began either shooting them up or jabbing them with the stocks of their rifles. Within a minute, Kay and the remaining students of her group reached the top as Megumi was finished clearing the last bit of resistance.

"Kay, I thought your entire group was going to get slaughtered out there." Megumi began.

"We were, those Kebab students were just rapid firing at us and they even turned their artillery against us." Kay explained what exactly had happened.

"We saw that, you gave us the chance to take the hill." Megumi replied.

"How many students do we have left in our respective groups?" Kay asked.

"I started out with a hundred and I'm down to just sixty-four now. Mika started off with about fifty and is down to thirty-five." Megumi explained to Kay her losses. "How many students do you have left?"

"Fifteen." Kay replied.

"Yeah you took a heavy hit there. I'm merging you with Mika's group as you have gotten your group badly mauled." Megumi knew that Kay's group in that one attack had nearly gotten themselves wiped out. "I'm taking the group to the bottom of the hill while you hold the top. I'm calling Jajka forth to help cover the hill while I'm going to call for another one hundred students to help hold this position." Kay picked up one of the lever action guns as she thought this was going to be useful for her and she picked up some of the ammunition and she began to load it into the rifle. Once Megumi had finished making the call for help. She turned to Kay with specific instructions. "Hold the hill from the top, we're heading to the base to fight off any counter attacks that Kebab might throw at us in case they try to retake the hill."

"Sure thing." Kay replied with a smile, she felt like she was finally in her element. Megumi nodded as the sixty-four students made their way down the hill. Once they made their way to the bottom, they began to hastily dig holes to take shelter in while they kept a look out for the eventual attack. Megumi kept looking out as a hundred students were appearing on the horizon.

"Everyone into your holes, if you don't have a hole, use the dirt or go prone in the grass." Megumi called out, the students hopped into the holes or went into the dirt piles. However, the students didn't have the time to dig the holes deep enough to shield themselves from incoming fire. Kay looked out ahead as Megumi's group wasn't at full strength facing a fully strengthened group. She knew she needed to take action.

"Sharpshooters, gather by me on the hill, we don't think Megumi is going to make it." Kay gave the order. Several students gathered around as they were going to take a defensive position on the hill. The sixty four students gathered as they began firing at the hundred student group. The first volley tore down a couple of students but they just kept advancing, the students began firing sporadically as it was an easier means of keeping the fire concentrated and giving students a chance to reload while putting down suppressive fire. Then the artillery cannons from the redoubts began firing. The first shell took out a bunch of students inside one of the dirt holes, they were going to support the Kebab advance while one of their students fell by a rate of a minute per student. They weren't the big threat but it was the artillery as it took out a student firing from a dirt pile. Megumi looked as her students were getting whittled down. "Fire!" Kay gave the order, the sharpshooters began firing from atop of the hill as Kay charged down to the bottom of the hill, lever action in her hands. Three Kebab students fell as they kept charging into the fray with more getting shot down by the sharpshooters. Kay fired the lever action rifle and it landed square into the throat of the kebab student, that student was down as the artillery was shredding up Megumi's group.

"There's too many of them. We need to retreat back up the hill!" Megumi called out that they needed to get back to the hill. Kay wasn't one to give up without a fight.

"I'm not abandoning this hill Megumi. All students hold your positions!" Kay shouted. She fired the lever gun again and struck another student down.

"Are you crazy? We're going to get shredded down here." Megumi called out as she thought it was much safer to go back up the hill and bloody Kebab there until the reinforcements arrived. Kay knew she wasn't going to back down from the fight. She fired the lever rifle and took down another student, Kebab students were getting very close and she decided to give the order.

"Fix bayonets!" Kay shouted. Megumi felt like she was losing control of the situation as she wanted to go back up the hill and fight from there. Kay however knew that she needed to prevent the artillery from firing so might as well take the fight to the enemy. Once the students fixed their bayonets, Kay leaped up and began charging at the Kebab students with the others following behind her. Megumi turned and ran up the hill. Kay and the others hollered as they were down to just forty-six students against the remaining students of Kebab's hundred student group. Kay fired the lever action and took down another Kebab student but the range was getting too close so she didn't have the time to prepare to fire another shot. She instead grabbed the barrel of the lever action and clubbed another student on the side of her face and knocked her over. Another Saunders student jabbed the rifle bayonet into a Kebab student as the artillery exploded around them as the two sides were engaged in fierce close quarters fighting. Megumi made her way up the hill before she got up far enough to observe the situation, everyone was fighting as the students continued to fight around them. Megumi raised the Berdan up and fired, she managed to take out another Kebab student as the sharpshooters were picking off students one at a time. Suddenly another hundred students came around the corner and began firing at the Kebab students. The students, fearing encirclement, began to retreat at the sign of fresh reinforcements. Megumi looked up to take calculation of their losses, out of the sixty-five students thrown into the defense of the bottom of the hill, about thirty remained but Kebab managed to lose nearly seventy students in that engagement. Now they needed to regroup and figure out what to do next.

"So how many students have we lost today so far?" Mika asked.

"About…" Megumi began as she counted up how many students they lost so far with just this one day of fighting alone. "About a hundred and twenty one students. We managed to fight off a counter attack and they lost about a hundred and twenty so we're just about even. We have about two hundred and twenty nine students in this area so we better dig into the hill and prevent any more counter attacks." Megumi knew they were just about even though Saunders could replace the losses for now but Kebab couldn't as every loss they took was only going to make their job even harder and make Saunders' job a whole lot easier.

"Dig in everyone, we don't know when they are going to counter attack." Mika gave the order, the students unpacked their spades and began to dig into the slopes of the hill. They were going to serve as their defenses.

"We also need a couple of artillery pieces for this hill while we trade the enemy cannons away." Kay also suggested and Megumi gave the order.

"Trade the cannons, we can use the hilltop." Megumi barked into the radio. Artillery was on its way.


The tsarevich managed to advance along the center, avoiding the hills that the enemy was occupying. They came into a junction in the road along with a farmhouse and a barn. Alexei looked around with his group.

"Occupy the buildings, I want loopholes for each of you to fire out. It is a good thing we found this area first before Kebab but they're coming here." Alexei instructed the students. Even though he was tall, Megumi made sure he was able to properly defend himself as he had an S&W Model 3 and a saber with him as the revolver had several shots and he could take several students out before the need to reload unlike the Berdan. Alexei then went into the house where less students had taken up position in while the others went into the barn. A couple hundred Kebab students were marching down the road as they had the order. They were going to need to occupy the house and the barn, but they didn't know that Alexei had gotten to this road junction first and gave the order. "They seem confused, begin firing." The Berdan rifles began firing from the house and the barn, several kebab students were taken out instantly as the remainder thought the fighting was coming from the barn.

"Check the barn, get the artillery to blow it up!" One of the students called out. One of the groups went to fight in the barn while the others were taking considerable losses by the house where Alexei and his group were held up in. Then she was taken out by one of the students firing at the house. Now they needed to rush it if they were to overcome the obstacle.

"Keep it up, we're taking them down!" Alexei called out, the Kebab students began to fall back after taking losses and they had managed to repel the assault. Then the artillery shells began to rain down on the barn. The students inside began to panic as they felt like they were trapped inside. They immediately began running outside as the artillery blew up pieces of the barn. They were running for Alexei's house but the Kebab students took the opportunity and began firing on the panicking students. The students began falling as the Kebab students were firing at them. Some of the students made it inside of the house while others were either shot or blown up by the artillery. Alexei was now down to less than fifty students.

"What do we do tsarevich?" One of the students asked. Alexei was counting as there were forty-eight students left including himself. Then the Kebab students decided to go ahead and take the barn which had been abandoned. The small force that decided to stay behind was thinly spread out as the huge majority of the students went ahead to take that one location. Alexei had an idea.

"We charge at them. I know reinforcements are coming but if we can attack now, we can lure them out and retake the barn." Alexei told them. "Fix bayonets everyone." The students got out their berdan bayonets and began fixing them to the rifle. Some students went up and began firing away, they were going to keep Kebab students from taking advantage and providing a distraction for Alexei and his group to sneak their way down and began charging at the group. The remaining students were taken by surprise as they had been firing at the house. Alexei pulled out the wooden saber and leaped into the fray first, firing the revolver at one of the students while slashing another with the saber. He fired the revolver several more times before it ran out of ammo. He has taken down about seven students so far. The rest were poking their foes with the bayonets. The students from the barn heard this and began rushing back to where they started from as their guard had been taken by surprise and beaten badly. Alexei had lost eighteen students in the struggle as he was now down to just thirty. There were still over one hundred students from Kebab being thrown at his weakened group.

"Break them and force them back!" Alexei held firm and reloaded the revolver as fast as he could. The students with the Bedrans began firing at the group that outnumbered them five to one. The students began firing away as they were trying to defend the ground they had taken up to that point and reinforcements were on their way. The students that were moving to Alexei were getting taken down one at a time with accurate fire. "They're getting close. Prepare to fight." Alexei gave the order to stand firm. He began firing the revolver as it was a guaranteed short-range weapon where taking someone out was easy. However, help was on its way. A hundred or so horses appeared as the students fired their Berdan carbines or readied their lances and sabers. "Alexandra is here to help!"

Alexandra pulled her wooden saber out and slashed into one of the students as they began to flee. Alexei and the group fired on the fleeing students as those that remained fell back. The cavalry went after them to chase the Kebab students from the field. Alexei began counting how many students he had left in the group.

"You were getting ready to bayonet your way through this as they were preparing to swarm you." Alexandra began.

"Yeah, I'm down to just twenty-five students including myself." Alexei replied.

"We definitely threw them back hard, I will send you to the rear to reorganize yourselves while a fresh group is brought up to take your place. I bet after today, Kebab knows they will have to defend the redoubts." Alexandra replied. She helped Alexei onto the horse as the extra hundred students began to arrive. "Survivors, bring the group back to be reorganized and we'll decide from there." The group began to withdraw when Alexandra's cavalry came back.

"We've driven them off the field. Alexei had suffered about seventy casualties while we managed to inflict nearly a hundred from what we can gather."

"That's good. We're going to bring the damaged unit to the rear. Keep patrolling the area until I get back." Alexandra told the cavalry that they were going to keep patrolling the area until they got back to the field. They nodded as Alexandra began leading the unit to the rear.


Sunset had come as both sides had called a ceasefire for the night and the students were going to use it as the time to get everything done and the shattered units were withdrawn and to rest up while the fresh units were heading out first and would take part in tomorrow's assault. Megumi was with the sub commanders as they were talking about the results of today. Several groups had seen action as of today and they had been hammered.

"They got plenty of students on those redoubts. They are incredibly restless and fighting tooth and nail for the redoubts. We managed to take a few positions but the open field ahead, fortunately the cavalry were able to spot this and reported back before the artillery fired on them. It will be a slaughter out there." Alexandra began. The shot students that were taken out as of today were brought to the rear to be checked for their injuries.

"Yeah that thing will be separating us from the redoubts as there will be a huge amount of artillery out there. Also we got news from the Balkan gangs that Count High School has yet to cross the Danube and the Slavic gangs managed to get behind the enemy's redoubt and some of Saunders will be there to help plug up the spot but we lost the entire Herzegovina gang in the process as well as a couple hundred students from the other gangs." Megumi told Alexandra the other advances that had occurred that day. Alexei was just playing his balalaika to keep the students calm as his sisters were helping out tending to the students' injuries as well as giving them food.

"So the losses so far are five hundred plus the hundred and twenty one from our attack and the seventy from Alexei's group. We're down about seven hundred and ninety one students so far." Alexandra crunched the numbers together with how many students were lost on this one day of fighting.

"That's a big crunch. We did hear that three hundred Kebab students were taken out along with ten on the redoubts from the miscalculated artillery fire, a hundred and twenty from our attack and ninety from Alexei's battle for that road junction. They've lost five hundred and twenty students. We can replace these losses but Kebab can't be the big advantage we have." Alexandra calculated the numbers together. Now they needed to figure out what they were going to do next.

"Well we have to assault the redoubts tomorrow which means we are going to take considerable losses if they get the range advantage. Whatever numbers we still do have will have to be reorganized and thrown into the fight for the redoubts tomorrow. We might as well get the cavalry together and try fighting whatever Kebab has." Megumi replied.

"Wait, I have an idea." Kay began. Alexandra and Megumi turned their heads to Kay who had managed to catch their attention.

"Why not start with an opening barrage with the artillery and push the group forward with the tanks, we can take the redoubts that way while also shielding out students from fire." Kay suggested throwing all of their remaining ammo at the redoubts and storming them once their defenses were weak enough.

"That might work, we managed to get students behind them so we don't know if the redoubts will be weakened if they sent students over to help crush the bridgehead over the river behind their front lines but it is worth a try." Megumi knew that Kay might have a good idea for the second day of battle. While the first day was uneventful as they had only taken just a handful of positions, tomorrow was going to be the main attack.

"We'll have to move the artillery under the cover of darkness if we are to get closer and begin the assault at dawn, the guns are too far away from the redoubts where considerable damage would be done. I'm sending the sappers in to help dig away and the artillery pieces in." Alexandra responded she walked away while Kay was given free planning over the entire field. Lola was watching as she was cleaning her Berdan.

"Well it seems to be that the fighting over the first day is dragging us down and we got nowhere. Tomorrow will be more decisive." Lola responded. Megumi nodded with agreement.

"Okay, let's rest up while we think of tomorrow." Megumi replied. She walked away from the area with Kay following her while Lola was typewriting a novella idea from the field of battle. Saunders managed to make a push today but didn't get very far.

Tomorrow was going to be the main battle.

[A/N]: Day one of the siege and Saunders hasn't gotten very far. However Kebab threw what they had on the first day and they have taken considerable losses they can't really replace. And I do apologize for this chapter taking a long while as there was a lot of research that went into this being the siege overall and the next chapter will be the other schools finally joining the fray.

Coalition students left: 9,279 out of 10,000.

Kebab students left: 2,480 out of 3,000.