The next morning would come around as it was clear that Saunders was going to make the next move. They wanted to make sure they could free up some of the students so they could reinforce other sections of the front. They needed the victory for now to keep their morale wavering at least. The fortress they had been besieging since day one was on their last legs and the students were poised to take it.
"Morale for the Dual Alliance is low, they weren't able to support Manami as of yesterday due to doggard resistance from the middle school students. Nathalia's attack seemed to have ripped a hole where the two chains meet, and she could have succeeded if we didn't call her back to help patch the front together." Megumi explained to the students of her group. Horses were drawing along their own heavy artillery. Five 305mm siege howitzers were being carted over by the cavalry, several more wagon loads were hauled over for the heavy ammunition they were going to use. The students unpacked the ammunition before they hauled the heavy crates over to where the guns were going to be placed. Megumi got out and began to look ahead with the binoculars.
"Yep. Gisela's trapped in there. The Middle Schoolers have agreed to fight off any relief attempts that come their way so we can capture the fortress. Hopefully if your prediction is correct, this should be an easy battle and we'll have the fortress by sunset." Alexandra told Megumi. Jajka opened the crate as one of the students had begun to open the breech. Jajka loaded a shell inside. There were also various other artillery pieces of various calibers, but they were hoping that the 305mm guns would be able to tear the fortress walls apart.
"Good, we don't know what kind of artillery they'll have but we need to move up the hill quickly if we are to be able to seize the fortress down and move on. We don't know how much ammunition they have but by our estimates, we need to be on our toes." Megumi told Alexandra that the bombardment was going to begin any minute now.
Meanwhile, Solti was talking to Gisela as the situation between them wasn't good.
"How much ammunition do we have for our cannons?" Solti asked as she was scrounging around for supplies. "We only got eight cannons and we don't know if that'll be enough to fend them off."
"We only got about thirteen shots per cannon. I'm not entirely sure but that's what I'm rounding this out to." Gisela explained to Solti about the ammunition problem. They only had about a little over a hundred shots on Megumi's entire army.
"That isn't going to be enough, not especially with the size of what Megumi could muster. We might as well try protecting the fortress walls from the outside and make our retreat in, this will allow us to hold the walls and hopefully Megumi's only route is up the walls." Solti explained to Gisela what their plan would hopefully be to take the fortress.
"Let's hope they don't blow the walls down." Gisela told Megumi with confidence. However, what neither of them realized was the fact that Saunders artillery outnumbered them ten to one. And with their supply lines stretched as they were surrounded on all sides, they knew there wasn't enough ammunition to go around for all of the students. Then the Saunders artillery began to fire away. The 305mm shells raining down on the fortress. The students stationed at the outside of the fort huddled in their dugouts as they were situated on the high ground. Suddenly a lucky shot took out the hillside and caused the students in their dugout to be exposed, they got up and began to withdraw inside of the fort. Megumi knew that there was a chance to close in and eliminate the defenders.
"Now's our chance, advance forward." Megumi called out; the students got up as they began their advance. Rumi was advancing from the rear as resistance was the calmest. Megumi meanwhile was going to attempt to fight her way through the hardest of defenses. Solti spotted the massive columns of troops and knew she needed to try to break them up.
"Megumi's advancing." One of the Gregor students called out. She didn't know if fight or flight was the best option. Gisela gave the order.
"Fire back if you want to take out those defenses." Gisela ordered for the Gregor students to begin fighting. The Gregor student opened her Mannlicher rifle to find no ammunition had been given to the students on the outside of the fortress.
"We have no ammo to fight the students with." She called out as there was nothing, they could use to slow down Megumi's march forward.
"Attach bayonets and throw yourselves at Saunders." Gisela called out for the students to go out of their way and fight. The Gregor students had no idea of what to do looked up to see their alliance's own artillery fire away. They had moved most of their guns against Megumi as they saw her as the most pressing threat. The artillery guns began firing away as the firecracker shells exploded all around. Megumi dove into cover and got out her Nagant revolver.
"All students begin firing at the fort, we need to breach the walls." Megumi called out, help would fortunately be on the way as two armored cars had showed up to the fight and began firing their machine guns at the fort's defenses. The students on the fort walls began firing their Mannlichers away to see who they could take down regarding students and what kind of casualties they could inflict. Megumi knew that the armored car support was going to be crucial if they were going to break their way through the defenses of the fort. Megumi knew they needed to advance and began to skirmish their way across the wall. "We have to keep advancing, fix bayonets!" Megumi shouted; the students got out their bayonets as they attached them to the rifles. Megumi was the first to get up as the others rose from the ground and began the advance on the fortress. The students stationed on the walls were still firing away as they wanted to defend this area of the fortress, but they were eating away at their ammunition. Suddenly a 305mm shell came in and smashed its way into the fort and exploded.
"Brace yourselves!" Gisela shouted; the shot had exploded but it didn't blow a hole into the fortress. Sensing the danger of another shot, she knew she needed to evacuate. "Off the walls everyone." Gisela and the crowd began to leap the way down the ramp at a hurried rate as they knew that one of the walls was going to be blown open, they had managed to escape in the nick of time as the wall exploded open. Stones fell all over the place as they had torn a breach into the corner of the wall. Also in their panic, they had abandoned their artillery. Now nothing was shooting Saunders.
"They just left, exploiting the gap." Alexandra called out; she and her cavalry went ahead first as Megumi's artillery was still pounding the walls and inside of the walls as well. Gisela was scrambling to regroup her students; she knew that someone was going to pour on through the gap and try to exploit it.
"How much ammunition we have left?" Gisela asked her group if they had any rounds left.
"Next to nothing." Another student called out. The ammunition varied wildly between students, some students had a full clip while others were completely empty, those that still had a full clip had no more spare ammo to use. Gisela knew close range fighting was imminent.
"Try to make your ammunition count." Gisela called out. Alexandra and the cavalry charged on in as Alexandra drew her saber. As the students fired sporadically away at the charging cavalry. The students looked up before they began to run off. Alexandra swung the saber up as if she was slicing a student open and that student fell down. The cavalry began to spread out as another section of the fortress had been breached. Gisela knew the situation was falling apart.
"Running out of space to run?" The voice belonged to Lola who was now entering the fortress from another section of the wall. They were well supplied, and it looked like the fortress wasn't going to hold out. The students continued to flood in.
Megumi meanwhile had just arrived at the trench where the Gregor students were huddled up in as she walked over, they threw their hands up as they didn't want to face her wrath.
"We surrender, don't shoot!" She called out. Megumi nodded as they had netted a bunch of students without the need to fire a shot.
"Oh, very easy then." Megumi explained, the artillery continued to go off into the city as the defenders fled deeper in. Megumi looked up as she didn't want to miss out on the action. "Take the Gregor students to the rear, I am going to help out with the walls." Megumi instructed. She and her group decided to storm ahead while her detachment was going to bring the prisoners back. Megumi watched as an armored car rammed itself into the gate door before the door swung open, the three armored cars began to drive their way through as Megumi and the crew followed.
"They've broken through!" Solti called out as she too began to retreat. She didn't know if she was going to be captured.
With three groups inside of the walls and with the artillery pounding any defenses away, the remaining students of the Dual Alliance huddled up in the square, ready to fight it off to the last student. They didn't have much ammunition to begin with and with the situation that had occurred, it only made it worse, there was also the possibility of the other gates being opened up and letting the enemy flood in. The minutes ticked on as Megumi knew that Gisela had dug in and was going to make a last stand.
"Are you ready to finish her off?" Alexandra asked. She was still on her horse, but she had grown tired after the last hour or so of combat. Megumi knew that something needed to be done if they were going to be able to capture the center of the town.
"Yes." Alexandra huffed. Alexandra's horse reared up on its hind legs, giving a neigh that it was going to begin the attack. It began to race forward in a gallop as the others followed in behind, the students pulled out their grenades and tossed them into the open position where a Dual Alliance machine gun was attempting to hose them down. Finally, the grenades exploded as the students who were still firing off with whatever ammunition they had left, attempted to hold the tide back. Eventually, Saunders was able to overcome their obstacles as the students leaped into the square and quickly finished off the students. They found the flagpole and began to untie the flag waving in the wind, the students began to pull the flag down while Lola and her students had set up the perimeter to see if there were going to be any counter attacks. None of them came after a few minutes, the flag was now waving in the air. Saunders had won the battle, Przemyśl had fallen.
"Three cheers for Saunders!" Megumi called out. Kay seemed to cheer as she seemed to be happy as well. However, Jajka and Mika weren't cheering as they seemed to be removed and more saddened about this siege as it had ended with the Dual Alliance in another defeat.
"This will serve as a morale boost compared to the defeat of last match!" Kay called out with jubilation. "Plus, we got a good stock of their stuff they seemed to have."
"Do you think we're going to get any ammunition from those?" Alexandra asked while looking at the rifles, they had a large stock of rifles, but they had no ammunition to use due to the fact that most of it had been fired off. "Most of these rifles don't have a bullet in sight."
"We're still screwed then?" Lola asked if this was going to be the case as she counted whatever rounds they had managed to salvage from the rifles.
"Yep." Alexandra replied. "Let's just get back to the ship and see what comes from this victory." Alexandra suggested but she wasn't really happy with how this victory turned out either. She got up and made her way back to her horse, ready to head for home. The other students got up and followed, carrying the meager supplies with them. They had captured a large number of rifles, but they had no ammunition for them.
Gisela meanwhile was trying her best to get over the situation regarding the failed siege and how she managed to get pushed into another defeat.
"Gah! Why can't the student army do anything right?" Gisela asked, she was still grumbling over losing the siege as yesterday looked promising but today turned into a disaster. Manami was looking at her while figuring out the results.
"You lost a lot of rifles, but Saunders doesn't have any ammunition for them so you two are pretty much facing the same dilemma." Manami explained to Gisela. Gisela was ready to rip her own hair out of her head after hearing the results of the siege; she wasn't able to relieve them in time.
"Casualties are mounting rapidly for me, I don't know if I'll be able to hold on at this rate, I need you to throw the next punch if it means throwing Saunders off balance and letting me restabilize the situation." Gisela explained to Manami that she didn't know how much longer the Dual Alliance was going to keep taking it. She wanted Kuromorimine to start launching the next attack for her while her school recovered. Manami however was pursuing different objectives.
"Can't do, we're still testing out the new weapons and when we get favorable results, then we can discuss going on the offensive against Saunders." Manami told Gisela that she was denying her request that she had some things that she needed to tweak and prove before the offensive would be launched. Gisela was left fuming that Kuromorimine wasn't going to help them.
"What are we supposed to do then?" Gisela asked. She was growing desperate at this point, and she wanted to seem like she needed a second chance to try to redeem herself. Manami looked at her as she tried to think of something if it meant restoring the morale of her entire school army.
"Try holding a speech or something to get the students to listen to you, let Solti take over some of the commanding duties as your students seem to be demoralized." Manami told Gisela to try turning things around to get some of their morale back.
"I will try." Gisela told Manami. Manami nodded before Runa walked into the room as she had some news for them.
"Well, the first attack against BC Freedom was a success though the lack of reserves due to Azumi's tenacious defenses has only allowed us to advance up to a quarter of a mile." Runa explained to Manami that gains were minimal due to the opponent's defenses. Manami nodded.
"We'll test them on Earl Gray next as her students seem to be more inexperienced." Manami told Runa that she was still optimistic about the next attack working in their favor.
"Okay, and first year Ms. Nishizumi is due for a promotion." Runa added that Maho was going to have another rank established under her belt.
"Again, she's climbing the ranks fast." Manami explained to Runa that she was impressed. She began to think about what was going to happen next with the new victories under their belts. "I'll tell her to lead this next attack which I am confident in succeeding." Manami told Runa that she had further orders for the fast-ranking girl.
"Yes Manami." Runa replied to Gisela's request. She then left the scene as Gisela was given another day to herself to reorganize the team as she was suffering heavy losses and was just a meat bag for Kuromorimine to have Saunders waste their resources on at this point. Gisela was praying that the tests were going to be over when she gets the school reorganized again.
Saunders meanwhile was facing problems of its own despite the victory they had snagged.
"Reports are showing that the populace of Saunders is protesting due to the fact that they are running out of food to eat. Not only that but we're almost out of ammunition and we're running out of rifles too. Even though we captured a large number of rifles from the siege, they have little ammunition to use and that is another big problem. If you have rifles, you need ammo for them to be useful." Megumi began as the situation was starting to get worse for Saunders. Kay was drinking coke like usual; Lola was fiddling with her fingers and Konstantina spoke out.
"What are we going to have to use for the cavalry? Sabers and Lances? They're only effective up close at the enemy but they are horrible after a certain distance. We'll be mowed down by Kuromorimine if we try attacking them and they have ammunition." Konstantina asked. She brushed her dark brown hair back.
"We have only two options, purchase weapons and ammunition to solve the problems as our factories repair and produce more rifles or we can get more allies to try to get the Dual Alliance to divert more resources away from us and therefore we can apply more pressure to Kuromorimine. We can only pick one for now." Megumi explained that there were only two options on the table they could take, either find more allies or start purchasing rifles that another school has in stock.
"We can try both." Kay suggested. Megumi turned her head as if this was crazy, both options.
"We can only choose one for now. We don't know if we can find another ally who is willing to join our cause." Megumi explained to Kay that both options were off the table. It was one or the other and Kay needed to pick one.
"Fine, let's see which school wishes to empty their weapon lockers for us. I'm going to talk to Alice later on to see if we can get ourselves a deal." Kay got up and left the scene. Jajka and Mika walked in with Alexandra who was taking a slim shaped girl with them, she had light brown hair with a large streak of white going through the middle.
"So, what did you find out about her?" Lola asked curiously.
"Her name is Nelly; she was the leader of the Gregor student group that surrendered to you. She told us that a lot of the Gregor students are surrendering to you as we don't like Gisela's cruelty. We're running out of supplies and based on your estimates, we need to be freed. So, want to free Gregor from the Dual Alliance?" Nelly introduced herself and laid out the situation at hand. They needed help if they were going to break away from Gisela completely. Megumi began to think about this as this was another problem that was now compounding an already strained Saunders.
"We'll think about that, for now we have a ton of problems we need to get fixed before we decide if freeing your school is the best course of action." Megumi explained to Nelly. "But it is nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." Nelly explained to Megumi. "Oh, and Gisela is asking Ankara to attack you again so be prepared for battle with her tomorrow."
"Ankara? I think Gisela is hiding behind her as she has been beaten." Alexandra told them with a bit of a laugh to her voice, she knew that Ankara was friends with her and was willing to take up the post if it meant slapping Saunders around.
"Yes, but there is another reason why; the Armenian students under her control are rebelling as well." Nelly explained that Gisela wasn't the only one dealing with rebels, Ankara was dealing with some too.
"Okay tell the rebels we're on the way. They just need to hold on." Alexandra ordered Nelly to give out the message to the rebels to hold out until they came along and helped them. Nelly bowed before turning to Megumi and then she walked away, she was going to be a help for Saunders in any way she could.
"Do you think she'll succeed in helping us or is she leading us for a trap?" Megumi asked Alexandra if they could trust Nelly.
"She was relatively straightforward for what she said, we got plenty of Gregor students laying around that followed us home. I think we should arm them and have them fight alongside us. What do you say?" Alexandra asked Megumi as Nelly had made her demands loud and clear. Megumi began to think over it before coming to a conclusion.
"I say we should sort our problems out first before thinking of Nelly's proposal. Once the situation we have regarding our shortages have been sorted, we should take up her proposal." Megumi explained that the problem regarding rifles and ammunition should come first before letting Nelly and the others fight for them.
"Okay. I'm not entirely sure how Kay will react to this." Alexandra expressed the fact that she was worried about Kay rejecting these demands and having the school fight on and batter itself into the condition it was in, it continued to deteriorate.
"We need to try to fix the situation." Megumi said before there was a hard gulp. She knew the week was only going to get worse before it got better.
[A/N]: A short chapter that deals with one of the sieges and with the siege at an end. This is leading to two problems: Gisela is reeling from another loss as the fortress had finally fallen and the students under her command are already questioning her leadership especially the Gregor students and now Saunders is running into supply issues as they had captured a large number of rifles, but they don't have any ammunition to use for those rifles. Both schools are stretched pretty thin and with Manami not sending any help to the Dual Alliance for another day, Gisela really needs to reel around and improve the situation.
Saunders is also getting battered as even though their army is large, they're running out of rifles as the rifles they do have are breaking down and need their parts replaced. With this new shortage, should Saunders begin dragging out their obsolete rifles from their armories, purchase rifles from other schools or do a mix of both. I would like to hear your opinion on this as it would help decide where this story will go forward.