The day seemed to go by as Megumi and much of Saunders had spent it training up the ten thousand students who were now assigned to their own groups. Nelly and the Gregor Legion were the quickest to train as they had some combat experience though they had little ammunition upon their capture. The rest of the students had to be trained under the watchful eye of Megumi. Kay meanwhile was training students of her own under her own watch. Megumi thought Kay was going to ruin any major offensive plans assuming she decided to take charge.
Megumi sat at her desk after a long day of work and was deciding to rest upon herself to see what kind of news she was going to receive. She remembered the day before that she was going to launch an offensive to upkeep her promise. Now she heard her phone calling. She decided to pick it up, it was Earl Gray.
"Hey there Megumi." Earl Gray began speaking, her tone sounded rather relaxed as there wasn't anything going on at this point.
"Oh, hello there Earl Gray, is there something you want to talk to me about?" Megumi asked Earl Gray if she had a reason to call her.
"I got news that if Kuromorimine hadn't made enough enemies already, they added one more to the list." Earl Gray began. "Libson Academy had just called in that they confiscated a Kuromorimine freighter that was carrying wheat from the mainland, and they didn't like that one bit, so they declared war on the academy." Earl Gray told Megumi. "We're also taking turns battering Kebab as we just had another battle with them. And we're trying our best to break them and it's going slower than expected."
"Okay just keep putting pressure on them, we're not in the condition to fight Kebab especially with that victory we pulled off the day before." Megumi explained to Earl Gray that Saunders still needed time to train its recruits to fighting condition.
"Okay see ya." Earl Gray told Megumi before hanging up the phone. Megumi hung her phone up as well, she knew that Earl Gray was putting pressure on Kebab, and it was a good thing. She decided to take a moment to relax after a hard day before the phone began to ring, Megumi decided to pick it up. She wasn't hoping Earl Gray wasn't calling twice.
"Hello?" Megumi asked to see who was on the other side of the phone.
"Megumi, this is Azumi. Kuromorimine has launched a massive assault around Verdun, they want to bleed the fortress white of its defenses. I'm losing as many students as I can send them into the meat grinder." Azumi frantically began the fact that Kuromorimine was attacking, and she was desperate to hold onto the defenses. "We asked our allies if they were going to be attacking to relieve some of the pressure from Verdun and divert Kuromorimine's attention away from us. Riccioli said she was being ordered to launch more attacks against the Dual Alliance and Earl Gray was going to be fighting against Ankara. Megumi, Saunders is the only school free, and they need to launch an attack to take the pressure off of my school." Azumi was begging for Megumi to launch an attack to get Kuromorimine off of her back to better prepare her defenses.
"Okay I'll launch an attack tomorrow morning so your school could be able to make better use of the defenses it has. I don't believe this attack will be successful as the recruits that we have trained are going to get their baptism of fire, but I have hope we can hit Kuromorimine hard enough to send reinforcements to us." Megumi told Azumi that she would be launching an attack to try to take some of the pressure off of Azumi.
"I'll take anything, thank you Megumi." Azumi expressed her gratitude for someone like Megumi to try to take the enemy off guard.
"Okay, I will inform everyone about it." Megumi nodded before she hung up. She knew that they needed to be able to break Kuromorimine so their morale was low enough that they couldn't launch another attack on Azumi and Azumi could counterattack and push them to the beginning.
Morning came as the commanders from the various groups had gathered. Megumi had laid out the plans. Alexandra knew that they needed to be ready, the various other commanders were nervous except for Kay who was excited and itching for a fight.
"Okay Azumi called, and we should prepare to launch an attack, we have brought two hundred artillery guns to the fight, and we hope this overwhelming firepower could break through Kuromorimine's defenses. We're also fighting on muddy ground so progress might go slower than we anticipated." Megumi told her friends what they were going to be doing and if this plan was going to succeed. "Our objective is Vilnius as we're going to attempt to break through Lake Naroch to begin heading to our objective." Megumi told the students what they were going to attempt to do in order to succeed.
"Okay we should be ready to carry out this operation." Alexandra told Megumi that the students would be ready to achieve this operation. Lola however was nervous. She knew the muddy terrain meant that the armored cars and cavalry were going to be mostly useless, and this fight was going to be one that the infantry would take the brunt of. Still, she headed off to her group to prepare them for an attack. She didn't want to say anything or butt into the conversation.
Saunders was divided into seven groups along three sections of the front. The northern group was going to be led by Nathalia, Lola and Megumi, the center group was Konstantina, Alexandra and Nelly and the last group was being jointly controlled by Himari and Kay as the two of them couldn't decide who should lead. The Kuromorimine groups were split into six along the three sectors of the front. Manami, Maho and Runa were in command of the north, Kirishima and Erwin were in the center and Azusa was commanding the southern part of the front. When the battle began, the two hundred or so guns of Saunders began to open up, the bombardment was going to last for an hour.
Kay was busy giving a rousing speech of the country that Saunders should aspire to be like while Himari was sitting alone, she didn't like Kay's speech as she thought it was annoying and not what she had aligned. As the artillery guns went silent, Alexandra poked her head out to see the terrain they were going to be fighting on. To her shock and dismay, Kuromorimine's defenses were mostly intact.
"This is not good." Lola told Megumi from her section of the front; the artillery had only knocked out one Kuromorimine machine gun in her sector. "Should we delay and fire for another hour, the artillery fire was mostly inaccurate?" Lola asked. She was feeling pessimistic about the attack failing and them not gaining any ground back.
"Now is too late, we need to launch the attack if we are to drive Kuromorimine out." Megumi told Lola that there was no change of plan and they needed to launch their attack now if they were going to be able to break Kuromorimine. Lola got out the watch and decided to wait for the moment to be just right while Nathalia got out her whistle. The seconds counted down as Lola seemed to be getting nervous about this, the seconds continued to count down as sweat began to run down her face, she knew without the armored cars and cavalry in the thick mud, there was no way their operation was going to succeed without walking straight into Kuromorimine's defenses. Nathalia blew the whistle, now was the time to attack.
The three groups exited from their trenches as they began their dash across the mud to try to take out the Kuromorimine positions, their feet sinking into the mud as they advanced. This slowed them down considerably as what seemed to be a dash across the mud had slowed them down to a crawl. Maho and the students in her sector noticed Lola and her group struggling through the mud as the students had bunched up into thick masses while trying to cross to the enemy trench. Maho raised her luger as the students rushed over to man their positions to face the slow march of the bunched-up students.
"Fire!" Maho shouted, the rifles and machine guns began to open fire as the bunched-up students were a tantalizing target for them. Lola looked ahead to see the plastic pellets flying straight at them. She dove to the ground before turning her head to see many students of her own group getting cut down by the incoming fire.
"Get down to the ground!" Lola shouted. The students dove down but they had taken many casualties among themselves. Lola attempted to crawl forward as many students were getting shot up as they lay in the mud crying out for help. Some attempted to save their friends but when they stood up, they were instantly met with incoming fire from the Kuromorimine trenches while they were cutting them down in droves. A few students returned rifle fire, but it was no use as many students were getting shot back if the attempted to fire. Lola crawled on but she was finding it impossible to do in the thick mud. The radio buzzed with Megumi's voice as she sounded frantic.
"Fall back Lola, I'm going to have the artillery do another hour of pounding on the trench line, none of us are going to break through." Megumi ordered Lola to fall back and replace the losses they took before conducting another attack. Lola knew that the terrain was going to play against them and knew Megumi was right.
"Fall back everyone." Lola ordered, she and the others began to retreat as they crawled away. Some of the students wanted to fix bayonets and charge at the Saunders students. Maho lowered her luger to tell these students that there will be no charge and they were going to wait out for the next attack. Then the artillery guns began to pummel on their position again.
"We should hide." One of the students told Maho. Their commander nodded and they went for their dugouts.
The artillery bombardment would last for an hour as Megumi wanted to break through and claim her victory. Lola looked out ahead of the trench as the artillery attack had stopped, the results still weren't good. The artillery attack did little to nothing to soften up the enemy's position.
"Still inaccurate and you want us to charge out there again?" Lola asked as she was going to question their methods if it meant securing a breakthrough.
"Yes, we need to make another push as we're given more reinforcements. We should be able to break through this time." Megumi told Lola feeling a little more optimistic this time around. Lola pulled out the pocket watch she had as the seconds began to tick down to the next charge across the mud to the enemy trench. Nathalia blew the whistle, and the students were up and over again, charging slowly across the mud. The Kuromorimine students ran from their dugouts to their positions to see if they could try keeping Saunders off of them. The Saunders maxims this time began to open fire, they were going to provide support to the charging students to help them secure the breakthrough they desperately needed. A couple Kuromorimine students were struck down this time around as the Maxim guns were peppering them. The Kuromorimine students found the thick masses of students slowly marching across the mud as it was clear that they wanted more.
"Fire!" Maho shouted again. The students began firing their rifles and machine guns away at the thick, bunched up masses of Saunders students. Lola commanded everyone to get down to continue to crawl forward. Many students did but Lola turned her head to the right to see similar results of the first attack, many Saunders students were getting mowed down by the enemy as the artillery was not doing its job correctly of destroying obstacles. Lola crawled forward as she got out her wire cutters and headed up to the lines of barbed wire. She had some gloves on which meant cutting yourself wasn't as big of a risk. Lola grabbed the wire cutters and began to snip at the wire while they were under sustained fire. First wire cut as she moved onto the second one, snip. The second write cut. She moved onto the last one and cut that one before Megumi's voice began to sound through the radio again.
"Fall back Lola, we can't break through again." Megumi called out; Lola looked around as her students were getting cut down.
"Fall back, second attack hasn't gone according to plan." Lola called out, the students that weren't getting mowed down began to retreat, they didn't want to continue the attack as this attack was the same as the first one, it achieved nothing.
"Might as well switch up the attack and have the middle go forward with their attack." Megumi told the group that they were going to be resting and launching a new attack in the middle to see if they could divert Kuromorimine's attention from the north and have them attempt to patch holes in that front.
The middle of the front was separated by boggy swamps around them and with the snow melting, this turned the ground into mud. The students were waiting around in their mud trenches while the artillery had finished firing. Alexandra looked up with her binoculars as the artillery had stopped shooting, Alexandra knew they needed to go on the offensive to cause trouble to the enemy.
"Okay, the artillery has finished firing, we are to break through and see if we can try to divert some of the attention off of Megumi so she can attack and hopefully cause a breakthrough." Alexandra explained to her friends what was going to be going down. "Nelly is the Gregor legion ready?"
"Just about." Nelly told her friend. Alexandra nodded before she got out the whistle. She blew it as it was the signal to go up and over the top. Nelly gripped the Fedorov rifle she had as another student was going to follow in her rear as the bandolier for her, she was carrying extra stripper clips. Alexandra was fully aware that Megumi's two attacks had failed to break through as Kuromorimine's defensive line had held with minimal casualties. The Maxim guns on the Saunders side began to open fire to provide cover fire to the students trying to reach the other side of the trench.
The sector Alexandra was trying to cross was much like the first, the artillery crew did little damage to the enemy trenches and didn't knock out any of the defenses. Erwin meanwhile was scrambling the defenses to hold the line as his sector took a bit more of a beating opposed to Megumi's sector but even then, it wasn't enough. Erwin looked out ahead as the students prepared their rifles to fire against the students as they struggled through the mud.
"Fire!" Erwin shouted, the maxim guns began to open up as Nelly knew that she needed to get down and continue the offensive.
"Get down everyone!" Nelly commanded her students, they all dropped down and began to crawl forward. She knew that she needed to protect her better rifle students if she was to break through. They crawled to the barbed wire defenses where they were going to attempt to break through. A student got out her wire cutters while Nelly began to focus down on the machine gun crew. Nelly began to fire one round at a time with her new rifle while prone on the ground. She was going to provide cover for the wire cutters while attempting to distract the machine gun crew. The crew of the Mg08 turned their heads to her and began firing away at her. Nelly knew they were distracted, and the wire cutters could do their job. Once done, the barbed wire fence had been torn down and the Gregor legion began to pour through the gaps. Nelly got up and followed behind her students.
The students in Erwin's sector noticed the fact that Nelly and her Gregor legion broke through and were preparing for melee combat. Nelly on the other hand knew that her selective rifle could be allowed to help push up and fire above the trench. They flipped them over to full auto and approached the trench. Some of the Gregor students paused briefly before pulling out their firecracker grenades, pulling the pin out and throwing them into the trenches. The grenades landed as they began to explode. Nelly was pushing forward with the attack as some of the middle school students were racing above in the trenches, trying to get away. Nelly stood up and fired her Fedorov rifle down into the trench. The students were struck with plastic pellets as they began to retreat further into their defenses. Nelly felt proud before hopping into the trench as the rest of the Gregor students secured it. Nelly got out the radio and decided to make the announcement to Alexandra.
"The first trench has been captured. Are you almost there?" Nelly asked as she needed some reinforcements if it meant pushing onward and taking more trenches.
"Just about, the middle schoolers have panicked from the report, and they are falling back to their second trench. We will push onward once all three groups have secured the first trench. Load up on your magazines for the time being." Alexandra instructed Nelly to get ready and prepare themselves if they were going to go further into the enemy defensive lines.
"Okay." Nelly told Alexandra. Alexandra nodded as her students had finished taking the barbed wire defenses down, several holes had been breached and they began to pour on through. Alexandra didn't have any squad portable weapons of her own so Nelly's breakthrough was vital if they were going to be able to break through themselves. The students arrived at the trench while Alexandra pulled out her revolver. She fired at the first machine gun crew she could find. Emptying out the revolver into the crew before she paused to draw her saber and put the revolver away. She leaped into the trench with the saber out, one of the Kuromorimine students tried to attack Alexandra with the rifle bayonet she had but Alexandra swung around and slashed the saber down into the student. The student collapsed while more Saunders students leaped into the trench to help secure the first line. Alexandra helped one of the students position the machine gun at the Kuromorimine students heading in from Konstantina's sector to help shore up the line. Alexandra pointed the machine gun at them and began opening fire on them. The Kuromorimine students knew they needed to join their middle school counterparts in the retreat to the second trench. The Kuromorimine students had finally withdrawn as the radio began to buzz.
"This is Konstantina, we've taken the first trench, should we proceed to the second line?' Knostantina's voice called out. Alexandra knew that they had broken through and had taken the first line of trenches. The artillery had mostly been inaccurate but some portions of the second line had been torn to pieces. Alexandra noticed this and knew she needed to press the attack.
"Okay let's continue onward to take the second trench." Alexandra announced. She began to press forward and head down the communication trench that she had. The students knew they needed to clear these trenches out if they were going to capture the supporting trench.
The students had retreated to the second line of trenches where they hoped they were going to hold out, they were evacuating the artillery further back so they could possibly use them in some sort of counterattack, but they hadn't evacuated the supplies which were now under attack. Some of the students began to get on the machine guns and fire down the trenches. Nelly was on the move again and she was heading down the trench to the supporting trench. A machine gun was in the way and began firing on against them. Nelly knew that knocking out the machine gun was the only way they could move forward to help take out the defenses and break through. She raised her Fedorov before firing away. The machine gun was taken out with a few quick shots, and they decided to push onward. The students began to retreat as the first Kuromorimine defensive line had been taken. Alexandra and her group were exhausted after securing the trench. This was about as far as she was willing to go.
"Man, this was an exhausting task, I'm telling Megumi we're staying here unless there is some sort of counterattack that happens, and we need to defend this line." Alexandra told her students that she wasn't willing to go any further out of fear that Kuromorimine was going to wither their numbers down and if there was none left, Kuromorimine could just counterattack and drive them to the beginning, they were going to hold their positions for the time being.
Kay and Himari's group were going to go next. The two of them had been arguing on how to proceed the battle and they didn't know how they wanted to do it. Himari wanted to hold the line while Kay wanted a full-frontal assault on the trench works. Under pressure from Alexandra, they knew they needed to prepare for the advance.
"Okay we're preparing to assault the frontal works and we need to break through the enemy lines, we're given a weak enemy but even then, it won't be easy. I expect everyone in the legion to do their best in breaking through." Kay tried to encourage the students to do what they needed to do. They all stood ready. She got out the whistle and blew it. Kay went over and climbed out of the trench followed by everyone else as they were going to assault the position being held by Azusa.
Azusa meanwhile was in the command of the least number of troops as she was mostly being used to hold the flanks. The Saunders students continued to pour their way out of the trenches and much like the northern and center parts of the front, they were beginning to bog down in the mud, bunching together. She was ready to mow down these students if it meant holding the line.
"Wait for it." Azusa told the students. She prepared the rifle as she was going to get ready to fire. The Saunders students continued to peer closer and closer to them. Azusa was waiting for just the right moment to open fire. "Now!" Azusa shouted. The students began to fire on the advancing students that were charging from the trench line. Kay looked around to see some of the students in her legion getting cut down with machine guns, but she wasn't ready to give up just yet. She knew they needed to dive down onto the ground and try to crawl forward.
"On the ground now." Kay shouted. She dove down as the other students did the same. Himari's group followed along with them, but she hadn't gotten the message. They continued to charge onward as they wanted to take out the machine gun themselves and get the glory. Kay crawled up to the barbed wire and got out the wire cutters, she began to cut away at the wires to cause a breakthrough. Himari and the others were most likely frontally assaulting the position and getting caught up in the barbed wire. They were immobilized by the wire and were getting shot by Azusa as they hadn't gone prone. They were just absorbing most of the shots from the enemy while Kay finally tore down the barbed wire. Some of the students that were in pain were getting trampled on by their fellow friends of Himari as they weren't ones to deal with the obstacle. Kay got up and her students had found a safe way through. They had found their way in, and they began firing their rifles at the machine guns. Himari and the others had drawn all of the fire for Kay and now Kay had an effective way in. Kay leaped down and got out her pistol. She began firing it at the students at the first trench. Her friends were joining in while Azusa was debating what she wanted to do, keep fighting and lose her entire first line or retreat and regroup? She had to make this decision on the fly as it meant winning and losing to her.
"Retreat!" Azusa called out. The students began to retreat far from their positions. Kay had taken the first line but due to Himari's incompetence and the fact that her students charged into barbed wire without cutting their way through, this led to high casualties, and it meant that they didn't have the strength to continue going forward. They had just taken the first line of trenches.
Megumi meanwhile had pounded the Kuromorimine positions for the past hour or so. Kuromorimine had withdrawn some of their strength to patch together the southern and middle parts of the front as Alexandra and Kay had broken through. Megumi thought this was going to be her chance to break Kuromorimine and dislodge their forces.
Lola was waiting around, she hoped that the third time was the charm and the fact that Kuromorimine had dispatched some of the strength away from their area so her hope for the breakthrough were high.
"Okay we should be ready to do this. If we can break the enemy fortifications, we can possibly roll up the entire front and advance toward Vilnius." Megumi explained to her students what the plan was.
"I hope this breakthrough can succeed." Lola sighed to herself. After two unsuccessful attacks, Lola knew that she needed to be more cautious, and she was praying that this was going to pay off. The whistle blew before Lola was able to close the watch. She got up and decided to follow out with the rest of the students. Much like before, the mud was still soggy and had reduced the speed of the advance. Some of Maho's students had been dispatched away along with having lost a few of her own students in the assault. She had to hold onto this position.
"Call in the artillery, we're not going to blunt this advance." Maho told the radio crew to get the artillery to do the work this time around. Some of the maxim guns were firing to help screen the advance of Lola's approach. She walked up to the barbed wire where her progress wasn't finished. She got out the wire cutter and began to snip away at the wire. Lola had slipped away all of the wire when she heard the sound of something coming. She decided to call for the charge.
"Now!" Lola called out. She began to move her way through the barbed wire with the others following behind until an explosion was heard followed by another. She looked back to see a few of her students getting pulverized by the incoming artillery. The Kuromorimine maxim guns began firing away again in their attempt to cut down the incoming wave. Lola looked ahead, she didn't want to go prone, not when she was so close. The others charged behind her while she continued to get mowed down by the enemy. "No time to retreat, we keep moving forward." Lola shouted. She ordered her friends to continue moving forward if they were going to break through and claim victory. Lola tried her best to rally but now they were now too few in number to make the dent she wanted. The radio buzzed with Megumi's voice; she wanted a retreat.
"Lola get yourself out of there, we're getting cut down in droves." Megumi shouted. Lola knew that Megumi was correct, and they needed to get out of there. "Everyone, begin falling back. We can't break through." Megumi told the group to fall back. Lola knew that Megumi was ordering another retreat back to the trenches, it was time to give up.
"Fall back everyone." Lola called in. The students began to retreat; they had nowhere left to go. All of the students that were still standing had retreated back to their trenches. The third attack had failed.
The battle was called to an end an hour later as the results for the battle were in. The battle itself was nothing short of a disaster to Saunders. They took little ground with a casualty ratio of five to one to Kuromorimine. Alexei, who had been observing the battle, knew that he needed to sit down and chat with Megumi and Alexandra. His sisters meanwhile were taking care of Himari's students who ran into the barbed wire and got trampled on.
"This battle turned out to be another defeat for us. We can't keep losing like this." Megumi began. "Me and the infantry went nowhere, and we just got cut down by the enemy." Alexei lifted his head after looking at the results.
"Yes, you're right. Megumi, your group went nowhere, Alexandra, your group was only able to take the first fortified line of trenches and Kay was only able to take the first trench itself." Alexei described what happened. "There were several factors that contributed to this defeat. First off, the artillery bombardment was inaccurate on all of the attacks which meant that Kuromorimine was able to lick itself clean and managed to prevent the breakthrough you guys wanted. Plus, the muddy, swampy terrain made the use of armored cars and cavalry impossible as they would get bogged down and not be able to go anywhere." Alexei told them that the students had the equipment, but they lacked the training that was needed if they were going to be able to break through the enemy lines. "Nelly being able to break through today was the one thing that made Alexandra's front able to progress."
"So, what are you suggesting?" Megumi asked Alexei if he had any solutions to making a devastating breakthrough that would make the enemy scrambling for their forces.
"I'm suggesting we put Alexandra in charge of the fronts. She's the only one with some form of breakthrough experience and with her wisdom, we can probably learn from her." Alexei gave his response. Alexandra looked at Alexei before she began speaking.
"I'll give it my best shot, but we definitely need to try new tactics if it means causing the enemy front to collapse." Alexandra nodded before she began to withdraw. Megumi and Alexei were left alone as they were wondering how Alexandra was going to come up with a plan to break through.
Alexandra was going to surprise them.
[A/N]: The next battle has ended badly for Saunders. The results prove that they need more training if they are to be able to turn the tide of the war. This battle will prove what Saunders needs to work on. Question is, could Alexandra come up with the decisive blow to the enemy? Only time will tell.
Chapters left to the Offensive: 2