Morning came as Alexandra knew the time for her grand offensive was running out. Megumi had delivered a message from Azumi the night before, the news was quite grave. Kuromorimine and its ally had been attacking them nonstop and the attack a couple days ago had no effect. Alexandra meanwhile knew that she needed another day more before launching the offensive. Planning it out to the tiniest detail was something she needed to do. She knew she needed to present the news to her commanders later on that day and assign who she wanted to bring along with her for the ride. Megumi, Lola, Naomi and Alexei were given groups along with her but even Alexandra knew that they couldn't begin the offensive without any sort of objectives to follow. The door opened with Megumi walking in. Alexandra had maps all over the place as if she had been drawing on them.
"Morning Megumi." Alexandra greeted her.
"Alexandra when do you think this offensive will go into motion, we need to seriously divert Kuromorimine's attention from BC Freedom. Azumi says that her positions were being attacked relentlessly and she's begging for you to divert their attention." Megumi described the situation to Alexandra that the offensive needed a start date or BC Freedom would be doomed. Alexandra knew that she needed to remain calm about it.
"I have plans of starting the offensive tomorrow. Some of the stuff hasn't turned up like Gisela's current composition of her forces. Once we figure that out, I'll begin assigning objectives to the various armies later on tonight. I have plans for a meeting with you and the others regarding the plan we have, and we should be ready to go." Alexandra responded to Megumi's question of starting the offensive and the date that she wanted to start it on. Megumi nodded before bowing her head down to Alexandra.
"Much appreciated, you've been working hard to begin the attack." Megumi told her friend as Alexandra's plan was being pieced together.
"Yes, we're going to be having a battle later today with Kebab to make sure that the tactics we made the day before worked and we can see what we need to work on." Alexandra expressed to Megumi what their objectives later on that day were going to be.
"Thanks." Megumi told her friend. She walked off, Alexandra looked over at her map and continued to study. She began circling the cities that she desired. It was all coming together.
Later on, that day, the students had been deployed in their formations. For Alexandra, it was the chance to show the new tactics she had developed from yesterday's training exercise. She was praying for these tactics to yield fruit but the combat she was facing against Ankara was more mobile and she had to be quick on her toes to respond to her threats. For commanders like Lola and Alexandra, they were going to do their best to bait and lure the enemy into a trap, much like they had done with the Dual Alliance and Kuromorimine before. Kebab students were waiting in their trenches as they had relocated from Erzurum to Erzincan to stabilize the front. Ankara meanwhile was ready to strike first and decided to go on the offensive.
Ankara blew the whistle as the Kebab students began to leap from their trenches and head straight for Alexandra's cavalry. The cavalry began to gallop away as Alexandra was going to draw the bulk of the enemy to her while Ankara continued the pursuit. Ankara knew that she wanted Erzurum back in her hands, but she also knew that the front at Trabzon could threaten her advance if Lola, who was stationed there, decided to launch an attack on her side. Ankara ordered the troops to attack Lola and take back the port.
"Lola, Ankara has split her forces into two, get ready to hold out while we lead Ankara into an ambush." Alexandra began telling her. Lola nodded a bit while thinking of what she was going to do.
"Okay I got you, be ready to launch a counterattack when Ankara can't go forward. We must strike toward Erzincan and take her forces off guard." Lola replied to Alexandra's request to hold firm and get ready to continue the push into Ankara.
Alexandra and the cavalry had galloped back to their trenches while Megumi was inspecting the infantry, the four-wave assault wasn't planned for this offensive operation as Ankara wasn't willing to dig in and wait for the enemy to come to her.
"How far away is Ankara?" Megumi asked her friend. Alexandra headed off to the rear to gather the rest of the cavalry.
"Not far away, the artillery is going to pound Lola's attackers while we have the armored cars and the cavalry to begin sweeping this attack back, once they have been repulsed here, there will be time to counterattack." Alexandra ordered Megumi and her group to be ready. Megumi grabbed her revolver and cocked it. The kebab students began to charge out from the cover as they were heading straight into machine gun positions. Ankara was still charging up ahead while unaware of the trap she was being baited into the trap.
"Now!" Megumi shouted, giving the signal for the group to fire. They began to fire away with their guns as a means of cutting down the Kebab students' charge. Ankara looked around to see several of her students getting cut down by incoming fire. The machine guns were firing in an overlapping manner. Ankara realized her mistake as she hadn't brought artillery along to support her. Lola however was preparing to pounce, not on her incoming flank but rather a bigger prize, her artillery.
"Fire!" Lola commanded the artillery to fire. The artillery guns on her side began to fire away as she was ready to give the go ahead to help Alexandra advance. The artillery shells began to rain down on the enemy artillery and began to smash the cannons to pieces. Lola grabbed the revolver she had and began firing at the incoming students. Kebab's flank was getting close, and she had to hold out to buy Alexandra time to begin the charge.
Alexandra meanwhile had regrouped all of her offensive assets into a single fist. The armored cars and the cavalry were ready to go, and she was ready to strike westward. With the flick of her saber, she ordered her groups forward. The armored cars went forward first as they were going to be attacking in the direction of Erzincan, some of them began to fire their mortars away while those with machine guns went into battle, charging away as their Maxim guns fired. Ankara looked ahead to see that she had been lured into a trap. Now came the obvious way out of there.
"Retreat!" Ankara shouted. The Kebab students turned the other way and began to make their retreat away from the front. It was the one thing they needed to follow to maintain discipline of their ranks. Alexandra spotted the retreat and gave the order, pursue the enemy and take her out. The cavalry charged on ahead, leaping over the trenches and swiftly passing the armored cars. As the Kebab students continued to conduct their retreat, it was becoming obvious the detachment that was sent in Lola's direction were right in Alexandra's way. The make matters worse, Ankara had no artillery to fight back with as Lola had taken out all of those. She had to make do with what she had.
Lola and the group she had were fighting against Kebab students for the past half hour when they heard a noise coming from that direction. She looked up to see what it was, it was Alexandra and the cavalry she had dispatched to chase Ankara down.
"She's here!" Lola called out. She finished reloading her revolver and decided to launch an attack to take the fight to Kebab. "Fix bayonets!" She called out, the students attached the bayonets and when Lola raised her hand, she ordered them all to charge out. The students began to leap out from their positions and charge at Kebab.
The Kebab students were getting charged in two different directions, the most obvious of the two was Alexandra and her cavalry that were conducting a swift attack. Lola had also charged out against Kebab, but the Kebab students knew there was only one logical option to getting charged in two directions: run away. They began to melt away as the fight against the two groups was untenable and they needed to reorganize. Alexandra pushed a little further westward while Lola headed south, Some of Megumi's students that had been dispatched as reinforcements were made to hold the front. Lola entered Erzincan and fought her way through. Ankara meanwhile was faced with the fact that she was reeling from such defeats, without artillery, there was no way she could keep going.
"It's hopeless, we need to end the battle and hand it over to Saunders." Ankara began, she knew the situation was hopeless and there was no way of them winning. A couple of students walked over as they knew that there was still some hope left to try to turn things around.
"The flank at Erzurum is weak and we can launch an offensive in that direction. It's a thin line and all we just need to do is attack and threaten the whole front." She began. She pointed to the map where Jajka and Mika were holding. An attack there would mean threatening the strongest units of the army that were advancing and possibly lead to a counterattack to take back Erzincan. Ankara knew that she could have the last laugh and try to attack.
"Okay we move whatever we have left there." Ankara told her friends. They nodded before they packed up and headed over to that area of the front. Alexandra meanwhile knew what was happening as the news was being transmitted to her.
"Alexandra, Ankara is moving troops to attack in the direction of Erzurum with a single fist, since we outran the armored cars, we're moving them over there to help shore up the line and try to make her attack run out of steam. You're needed there." Lola told Alexandra that they had managed to intercept the message and now they needed to react accordingly. "I'll be alright, go on."
"Okay." Alexandra told Lola. She hopped back onto her horse and galloped off to intercept Ankara's attack. Megumi and the armored cars meanwhile were heading to the area too, but Alexandra didn't know about it as of yet.
Ankara knew the defensive perimeter was held loosely and she decided to launch the same attack plan as before. She began to charge forward with whatever steam she had left to try to force them into a battle with her. Jajka meanwhile saw the group coming to her and decided to raise the alarm.
"Kebab students incoming, prepare defenses." She called out. Jajka raised her rifle and began firing at the incoming students, this was a poor defense as they had no machine guns to counter the infantry attack. Ankara was getting close and even though two or three students fell in the charge, she was still pushing the attack. "Retreat back." Jajka shouted, she began to retreat as Mika heard the signal too and ordered a withdrawal.
"Fall back!" Mika called out. The two groups began to retreat as Ankara had advanced a quarter of a mile into Jajka's flank, sinking her teeth into a weak spot of the enemy lines. This wasn't going to last however as they heard the familiar growl of armored cars. The armored cars had shown up and their machine guns began to fire away. Ankara knew it was over. Their armored enemy had arrived, and it was now beginning to push them back.
"Yeah, that's right you stay back!" Alexandra shouted, Ankara turned her head to the left to see Alexandra and the cavalry charging at them. The Kebab students began to retreat as Ankara knew that this battle was lost. Alexandra and the cavalry charged forward as she was ready to take her full vengeance out on her foe. Ankara tried to run but charging a quarter of a mile at Jajka and the march to get there had left her exhausted. Ankara looked back as Alexandra was right on her tail. Alexandra's horse maneuvered around to get a good shot against Ankara. Ankara continued to flee but Alexandra quickly caught up to her and swung her saber low before swinging it up, she ended up getting Ankara before her target collapsed. Alexandra had decided to push the Kebab students back to their final position.
Saunders had secured another victory, but this led to them not practicing the new tactics they had learned. Alexandra told the exhausted students to begin another round of practice to make sure they were experts in this kind of warfare. Alexandra meanwhile summoned the commanders she had interacted with the day previously and decided to make a meeting with them regarding the situation at hand.
"So why has this meeting been called?" Megumi asked. Alexandra sat them all down before rolling out one of the maps she had kept around and showed it to her commanders to where their armies were going to be located and she was ready to begin laying out their plans.
"This meeting has been called as I have learned the composition of the enemy forces." Alexandra began. She had spent the last few hours making the finished map before she showed them the location of where the enemy battalions were going to be stationed.
"We're up against the 4th army, the 1st army, the 2nd army, the 7th army and the Kuromorimine south army. Only one battalion of these armies is Kuromorimine but the rest of them are the Dual Alliance as we know are weaker than their ally. We can easily roll up the front and get the Dual Alliance out of the war. However, this is not the ultimate objective. The ultimate objective however is still to take back Vilnius which Kay is in control of the west front along with Jajka, Mika and Himari." Alexandra began.
"So, what's the objectives for our armies?" Alexei asked if he wanted to figure out where they were going to go and what they were going to take. Alexandra nodded to the tsarevich's question and decided to speak.
"The objective of the 3rd army is to take the Stokhod river and help advance westward. The objective of the 11th army is to take back Lemberg and Przemyśl, the 7th army's objective is to take Stanislau, and the 9th army's objective is to take Czernowitz and advance into the Carpathian Mountains." Alexandra began as Megumi's objectives were in red, Lola's in yellow, Naomi's in orange and Alexei's in green. "The 8th army which contains me, Konstantina, Nelly and Nathalia would advance to Lutsk and help swing to the southwest to help take back Przemyśl." Alexandra told them as her objectives were in blue. "If this attack is successful, we can convince Count High School to join the war on our side at this very moment and we can have the Dual Alliance knocked out of the war at the end of next week." Alexandra had her hopes high for the offensive to be successful.
"Much appreciated, I sent the letter to Ileana, and she has written back that Count High School is still deciding but they will join the war on our side is what I have gathered from them so far. She also wished me luck and when the offensive is launched, she will be observing before giving out the signal. Plus Count High School is already beginning to mobilize." Alexei explained to Alexandra what was going on with Count High School as their mobilization orders were given and they were now getting ready to fight. Alexandra nodded with approval. Another ally to help get the Dual Alliance out was something she was betting on.
"Excellent work." Alexandra nodded with approval. She turned to her commanders and knew there was going to be another few hard days of fighting ahead of them. "Get some rest everyone, we're going on the offensive tomorrow. Meeting dismissed." Alexandra told them. Megumi, Lola, Alexei and Naomi all left the room as Alexandra packed up everything.
Alexandra knew she had everything at her disposal, she had reformed Saunders' shambling army that had suffered defeat at Lake Naroch into a crack force that she hoped would be hard to stop. The students had been trained for the past couple of days and knew that she needed to play her part of the battle. Her phone began to ring as someone was on the phone.
"Hello?" Alexandra asked who it was that was on the other side.
"It's Riccoli, we're having trouble containing the Dual Alliance as they had launched an attack at Asiago. We are getting pushed back and we demand you will launch an offensive to take their attention off of us." Riccioli began as it was clear that not only was BC Freedom in trouble but also Anzio.
"Alright, I've just concluded a meeting and I'm preparing to launch a massive offensive tomorrow morning. I've been planning this out for the past day or two and if you can hold on until I strike, that will be good." Alexandra explained to Riccoli that she was preparing to attack and if she did, she hoped the attack would shatter the Dual Alliance.
"I hope so, if I find out that your attack has failed, I will sign peace with the Dual Alliance and her allies." Riccioli told Alexandra. She hung up afterward which left a heavy burden on Alexandra. She had to not only take pressure off of BC Freedom but also now Anzio. She knew she needed to get to work tonight.
The two opposing armies would meet on the mainland later that night and both sides dug in for the grand offensive. Alexandra knew that her part of the battle needed to be played, she began to send fake wireless messages to Gisela while Megumi and Lola did diversionary movements of their forces to try to confuse Gisela to see which forces, she needed to concentrate her forces on more. The better trained and more experienced students were going to be attacking first as they had the highest chances of breaking through the enemy lines and then attacking from the rear of the enemy. Alexandra had sent out false messages thinking they were going to have the 11th army attack first but contradicted this statement thinking the 3rd army was going to advance with considerable strength. While the students rested and began bragging about what they were going to do, the artillery was brought up under the cover of darkness while forward saps were made to reduce the amount of time, they would be exposed trying to cross the land to get to the enemy trench. The artillery had been brought up about two to three hours before the offensive was going to be launched. And at long last, Alexandra had made sure that her students were fully equipped with both rifles and ammunition for this massive attack.
Kirishima and Gisela noticed something big, but they weren't too overly concerned about this.
"Looks like Alexandra is preparing to attack but is this something we should worry about?" Kirishima asked Gisela as she was a little worried about the massive build up that was occurring. Gisela looked ahead but felt confident in her defense.
"Don't worry it will just be another human wave attack that we can beat back with little worry. And if Alexandra does break through, she won't get very far. There is no way she will keep this offensive up for very long." Gisela told Kirishima that this is nothing to worry about so much. They just needed to hold out and then the attack would quickly run out of steam, and they could counterattack and push Alexandra back to the start. What Gisela didn't count on was the fact that Alexandra was going to take them completely by surprise.
The offensive was about to begin.
[A/N]: A short chapter but this will be the last chapter of the Caucasus Campaign as I am having creative trouble writing about this front but the next few chapters I am completely excited about as Saunders is about to go on the offensive. I have been building this up for some time now and by the looks of things Alexandra is ready to go. Once she goes, there will be no stopping her this time.
Chapters to the offensive: The next chapter will be the offensive. Good luck.