Full title: The Third Battle of Osowiec Fortress
"We got the news Runa; Anzio has declared war on us." Gisela began as this news couldn't have come at a worse time. "We're on the verge of completely destroying Saunders and now Riccioli has made her move. We now have to fend them off and this will leave the Saunders front not as strong compared to the previous offensive."
"We can still handle Saunders as they can't resist us as strongly compared to you, we'll also be sending rifles and ammunition to you while you sort out your problems. We think Anzio would be a weak enemy so resisting them would be easier than expected." Runa told Gisela that Anzio wouldn't be much of a problem so fighting them to a standstill would be easy. "We'll handle Saunders and you take care of Anzio."
"Much appreciated." Gisela told Runa. They both parted away while Runa began rubbing her hands together. She had a plan to bring Saunders to their knees. She couldn't use it that battle but she can use it here. The conditions for it were going to be favorable.
The next morning, Manami, her school and their middle school counterparts were waiting to prepare the next attack, a couple of horse wagons with canisters trotted up. Erwin and Maho went over to begin unloading the wagons. Manami was busy talking to Runa.
"So Anzio is now at war with us?" Runa asked, she wanted to hear the events from the night before. Manami began to think about it before she gave a nod.
"Yep and this means we can't use Gisela so we're now left alone to knock Saunders out and cause major damage to them. But, I think we have an ace up our sleeves." Manami began. Maho and Erwin were carrying the canisters gingerly as they didn't want to accidentally open them until they were in a good position in doing so. "We don't need the traditional artillery to do the job as this will be much more effective."
"What's the plan for the canisters, what do they have inside of them?" Runa asked while the students continued to gingerly carry the canisters to their places.
"It's tear gas. We had been testing this out in small batches against BC Freedom and St. Gloriana and they were super effective and I wanted to use it against Saunders on a much larger scale yesterday but the wind wasn't in our favor, now that favorable winds have arrived, it's time we use the gas to finally seize the fortress which has held off two of our attacks. And since we know Saunders doesn't have gas masks, this should be a breeze and we placed mustard colored dye in it for good measure." Manami explained to the students what they were going to be doing. She was optimistic about this attack as she wanted to finally take Osowiec Fortress. Lola was watching all of this before she scurried back to her trench without anyone noticing her. Lola hopped into the trench as she decided to give the news.
"Kay, Megumi, Alexandra?" Lola asked for their attention. The three of them turned their heads to Lola and they were curious to figure out what she needed. "I got the news that Kuromorimine plans on conducting a gas attack against us and we need to be ready for this threat." Lola explained what she heard from the Kuromorimine side of the battle. Alexandra was worried as they didn't have much to counter them.
"Is there anything we can do to try to counter gas if we don't have masks?" Alexandra asked. She knew that the gas could easily destroy them.
"As it's only tear gas but I have an idea, I don't know if it'll work but I'm willing to give it a try." Lola began. "How about we put wet rags around our faces, the rags will be red at where our mouth would be and when the gas hits, we begin coughing, then we fall over and when Kuromorimine decides to head over to us, we get up and counter attack." Lola explained that she was going to have the entire group feign the gas' effects and get back up to fight when the moment is right. Kay didn't know how effective it would be but Alexandra began to speak next.
"Anything is better than nothing. Get some rags, red paint and water. I'm willing to have a nasty surprise for Kuromorimine." Alexandra gave the order. Mika and Jajka scurried off to find the said supplies and they could try to prepare themselves for the gas attack.
A half hour would go by as Kuromorimine and its allies had their faces covered with gas masks. Lola was looking out through some binoculars before turning and giving the order.
"Kuromorimine is just about ready, begin wrapping your faces up." Lola gave the order. She grabbed her wet rag and wrapped it around her face. The other students did the same as the gas attack was just about ready. They were covered within a minute with the wet rags and all they needed was Lola's signal.
"Gas ready to be released?" Erwin's voice was muffled by his gas mask. Manami and Runa had similar ones.
"Just about." Runa replied to Erwin as her voice was also muffled by the gas mask. The Kuromorimine students began to unscrew the canisters of gas as the gas began to drift across the field in hoses pointed directly at Saunders. The wind was perfect as Kuromorimine knew the best weapon for an effective gas attack was timing. The gas drifted to Saunders, the mustard colored dye they used made whatever grass was available to turn black. This also had the effect of caking their copper artillery guns with a thick honey mustard type of residue. The gas then struck Saunders. Lola gave the signal. She began to put on the act of coughing violently as her eyes began to water. Everyone followed her act as they began to cough uncontrollably as well. Lola felt her eyes going heavy with tears as the tear gas was doing its work but she didn't know how long she was willing to keep the act up for. Lola then closed her eyes and fell to the ground. One by one, the others fell to the ground as they were victims of the gas attack.
"Are these canisters almost empty?" Azusa asked. The canisters were finished spraying the chemicals at the enemy trench, within moments, the chemical vapor was replaced with clean air as the chemicals drifted by the wind and had passed over.
"Yep. Be prepared to move." Runa instructed them. Manami began to climb out of the trench as she was going to be taking the lead, she was followed by Runa and then the others. They marched their way across no man's land, breathing shallowly with the gas masks they had on plus they were moving slowly as they were nervous. They were now mere feet from Saunders trench but something was stopping them. "Is there something wrong with Manami?" Runa asked her. Manami said nothing as some of the Kuromorimine students began to remove their gas masks, the air was breathable to not tear up which was good. A raspy groan was heard followed by a cough. Manami turned behind her to see who it was but that didn't come from Kuromorimine. Another raspy moan was heard before Manami turned to see who it was, pulling herself from the trench was a Saunders student with her mouth red and covered in rags. They didn't know if the gas made them cough so hard that they were coughing up blood and pieces of their lungs. Another student slowly leaned up holding her rifle. Manami had walked straight into a trap.
"Oh no." Erwin muttered. He had just removed his mask to see Saunders students have the mouths and noses wrapped up in rags with red splotches over the rags that covered their mouth. Bang! A plastic pellet struck Manami in the forehead and immediately took her down. The M1910 maxim machine gun began to open fire, cutting down the front row of Kuromorimine students which included the important students who were leading the operation. The defending students, no more than a hundred students strong, began to launch a bayonet attack. The remaining students began to retreat with some of Saunders, shooting at them; more Kuromorimine students were taken down. As the Saunders students staggered to the enemy, they walked slowly like zombies.
"Zombies! RUN!" Kirishima shouted as she was terrified, the other students began to follow as they were terrified. Olivia Kaya was observing the students that were running as the Saunders students followed after them. She raised her P08 Luger and fired a couple shots in the air to get the students attention.
"Stop running! Do you think zombies are invincible? They aren't, they can still be taken down like a normal soldier, let's show the undead what we are made of!" Olivia rallied the retreating students together before she began to head back to what seemed to be the Saunders horde. To the Kuromorimine students, they turned and began to follow after her. To her, they did not need to run but fight back. Olivia was charging one way and the Saunders students in the other way, they were going to clash into each other again.
The two schools clashed as Azusa swung the rifle bayonet and jabbed a Saunders student. Another student with just a bayonet went up and began jabbing it into another Saunder student. Alexandra who had lost her rag mask, slapped a Kuromorimine student with an entrenching shovel as she was on an adrenaline high and was ready to fight everyone if she had to. Kirishima spotted a Saunders student with a plastic bayonet before she flipped her over and drove her own bayonet into her. She turned around to get jabbed with another rifle bayonet. Kay swung her saber around, taking down one of the middle schoolers before turning around and spotting another middle school student, she swung the saber low and sliced another student broadside, taking him down. Olivia was finished fighting one of the Saunders students before she spotted Kay. Olivia turned and she fired her luger at Kay, taking her out as Kay collapsed onto the ground. Lola fired her rifle at the crowd before noticing a Kuromorimine student, she swung the rifle around and clubbed the student in her face. The student fell over as Lola slapped her down with the rifle butt. Up and down the line, the students continued to get battered and jabbed with rifle bayonets or getting slapped with rifle butts. Azusa went to attack but Jajka knocked her on the head before slapping her in the jaw with the rifle and causing her to fall over. Both sides were engaged in brutal melee combat as bodies were beginning to pile up. For Maho, she knew now was a good time to fall back.
"We can't win this! We need to get out of here!" Maho shouted, the Kuromorimine students began to retreat while the Saunders stood there victorious that they fended off another attack. Lola felt proud despite her face being bruised in a couple of places. She grabbed her ragged mask before she tore it off and tossed it on the ground.
"Hundred men, Charge again, Die again." Lola told the group that their counter attack was successful and they drove Kuromorimine from the field of battle. Now came the time to treat their injured.
The hours pressed on as Lola's bruises had been treated by Megumi and the students were packing up whatever they could carry and see what they could leave behind.
"What's going on?" Konstantina asked. She had received the news about what was happening as even though their defense had been successful, they were packing their things.
"We're planning on blowing up the Osowiec Fortress. We have to keep retreating. Even if we continue to win day by day, battle after battle, we have to give up ground, this fortress we need to leave behind if we are to retreat." Megumi explained to Konstantina that they were leaving the fortress that stood for three battles behind to escape. Konstantina hurried off to help take the equipment with them. Lola got up as Alexandra walked over to her.
"Lola, help me attach some of the explosives to the fortress pillars, we're going to set them off when the fortress has been evacuated." Alexandra barked her order. They went down to where several explosive devices were being tied to the pillar. Lola grabbed one of these devices before walking up to the pillar. She placed the explosives on the pillar and used a sticky device to keep the explosives in place. She grabbed another one and went over to the next pillar and placed it there.
"That should be enough Alexandra, I suggest we start laying the rope down and for you and Lola to get out of there." The student suggested. Alexandra nodded as the two of them began to walk out, they began to lay the rope down as it was all rigged to the explosives. Once they exited the fort, Lola and Alexandra mounted their horses as the last girl lit a match, she placed it on the rope as the rope caught fire. She shook the match to put out the fire before getting on her horse. The three of them galloped away as the fort was going to be blown up.
Maho and Runa headed out onto the field to figure out why the Saunders students had mounted such a daring fight.
"They looked like they breathed in the gas with the rags they had, where their mouths were, it looked like they had coughed up blood. It was terrifying to most of the students. Thank goodness your friend was there to rally us to fight back as she thought they weren't invincible." Maho described to Runa what exactly happened. Runa nodded.
"We didn't mean to use chemical weapons but it didn't look like blood they were coughing up. They must've pulled some kind of trick on us." Runa told Maho that the attack must've been a fluke and they were desperate to fend them off and they did successfully. She went over to see the supposed red rag on the ground.
"Does it look like the students had coughed up blood?" Maho asked. Runa picks the rag up and takes a closer look at it. She looked at the red part where the mouth was before she took a sniff of it.
"This doesn't smell like blood, this smells like paint." Runa began. "Whoever decided to come up with this tactic I'm impressed those students had the bravery to face us with what seemed to be an easy victory for us."
"Yeah I'd figure. I don't know if one of us would be that crazy to come up with a tactic such as this?" Maho asked. Runa laughed a bit before she continued to speak.
"But still, do you think zombies are real?" Runa asked Maho if she believed students could come back to life to fight them off.
"I don't think so, this must be some kind of act they had decided to put on." Maho replied. Their conversation was cut short when a massive explosion happened behind them. They turned to see what it was and the massive fortress of Osowiec caved in and collapsed in on itself, some pieces were blasted outward but they didn't get far as the fortress had been destroyed. "I bet Saudners is destroying the fortress so we can't have it. They've abandoned it."
"Most likely. They're still in retreat from yesterday but should we continue to pursue and hunt them down?" Runa asked. Maho didn't know what the best response to this was.
"We should ask Manami about that when we get the chance." Maho told her mentor about it. They turned and began to walk away, they were going to tell Manami everything they knew.
Saunders had held Kuromorimine off this time with some crazy form of planning but this was still a small blip in it all out retreat. Blowing the fortress up was part of the retreat plan but this still didn't solve the Saunders problem of lack of everything. Lola was desperate to begin patching the front together.
"I'm impressed with your bravery and leadership today Lola. We might consider promoting you to lead your own group. And you will be getting cross of St. George medal for today. You deserved it." Megumi began as she opened the box up. She took out the medal before placing it on Lola's uniform by a safety pin. Lola was impressed but this didn't solve her concern.
"This isn't going to fix the rifle problem we still have. Sure the Chi-Ha-Tan rifles are coming but we don't know if it will be enough and it won't be for another week before we get those new rifles out. We should try finding a better source." Lola suggested that they should try fixing their supply problem first before thinking of giving out rewards.
"Should we dig into the armory and find those Berdan II's we still have laying around and we should give them to second line students to free up our usual rifles." Lola suggested that they should drag out their obsolete single shot rifles to use as a supplement as well as more rifles they needed to purchase. Megumi nodded about this.
"Okay. I'm going to see how many Berdan II's we have laying around in the armory and see what we can use from them." Megumi told Lola before she left. Lola had a solution for the rifle problem but this was only going to be a temporary fix. They desperately needed rifles.
Megumi was walking along before Nathalia pulled her over as she wanted to speak to her. To Nathalia, the situation was looking bad.
"Megumi, there was another protest at the school today. The students are calling for an end of bread rationing and Kay says that she will end it. Alexandra intervened and said that bread will continue to be rationed as she fears that if Kay opens the granary, we will be out of grain to make bread in two weeks." Nathalia described the situation. Megumi nodded as the situation was slowly getting more and more dire.
"Alexandra knows how to make resources last and Kay is one who knows basically nothing. Just tell the people they're grateful for the rations otherwise they will have nothing left to eat." Megumi nodded and while she was sympathetic to the people's cause, if they were going to run out of grain and have starvation set in, they better figure out a way to make the grain last. "We're trying to end the war as fast as we can but we don't know how long it will continue to go on for. Lola told me to get the Berdan II's from the armory as a temporary means of arming our students." Megumi also added that they needed equipment to fight their foes and if there was a massive shortage, then the troops wouldn't be able to fight. "Lola has ordered a massive retreat to shorten the supply lines and thinks if we give up some land, we can still remain in the fight but we need to mobilize more people into our ranks if we are to fight Kuromorimine."
"So what do you want me to do?" Nathalia asked Megumi if she knew what idea she would have.
"Give the order for mass conscription, every abled body student in Saunders needs to fight in the war for our school." Megumi told Nathalia to give the order for the students to prepare to fight. Nathalia nodded before she dashed off. Megumi knew that complete mobilization was the only way to help Saunders out but they needed more supplies and more students were going to eat them up. "I hope Lola knows what she is doing and could stabilize the front."
Megumi and Alexandra were praying for their favorite girl to sort everything out, unlike Kay.
[A/N]: Short chapter but with what happened, chemical weapons, men with red rags on their faces and staggering around like zombie soldiers and causing the enemy to turn and flee in panic (well sort of.) Next chapter will be the conclusion of the withdrawal and the patching together of Saunders to try to fix their problems which shall take a few chapters before Saunders is ready to fight again.
Hundred men, Charge again, Die again. Long live the defenders of Osowiec fortress. GRATUITOUS SABATON TIME!