Gisela got her wish as Kuromorimine reinforcements had arrived the next morning. Along with students from the Ausztria-Magyar who decided to deploy away from their offensive against Anzio. According to the students, they learned they had been pushed back from their positions despite having the off offensive going successfully.
"I sense you have your reason for us to come shore up the line with the enemy?" Runa asked Gisela if she was going to make her reason to help out.
"Yes, there is the Lutsk bulge that needs to be patched together. Alexandra's advance had torn a massive hole as many of my Gregor students had deserted to the enemy. I have little to no spare troops to plug up the line." Gisela told Runa that Kuromorimine students were needed to where the areas were the most threatened. Runa nodded while looking at the map.
"All right, Kuromorimine students are being dispatched to deal with the situation. Gisela knew that she had called Kuromorimine over to help patch the front together and form a sustainable defense. Gisela got what she wanted, but for her, this offensive will still be one catastrophic defeat after another for Gisela.
Alexandra meanwhile was preparing to launch another attack to take out Dual Alliance positions and advance the front forward. She had continued the trickery in an effort to confuse Gisela into which group had been strengthened and where she was going to attack. Alexandra had looked ahead to see the trench near where the 8th army and the 3rd met, was getting reinforced. Alexandra knew an attack there would disrupt them. She decided to get the Gregor students on this as they had been cycled out to this part of the front and normal Saunders students had taken their place. Alexandra knew an attack here would disrupt Kuromorimine if she was able to break in. The students sapped trenches as the artillery did their brief but very accurate bombardment.
"Are you ready Nelly?" Alexandra asked her. Nelly nodded with approval.
"Just about." Nelly replied to Alexandra. The latter nodded with approval as she was ready to launch her attack.
"Okay we're about ready to go." Nelly told Alexandra.
"Good. Now make me proud." Alexandra responded to Nelly. She looked at the artillery while they continued to fire at the trenches. "All stop." She ordered, the artillery stopped firing as Nelly and the others were in their sap trenches, ready to assault the enemy.
Nelly and the others looked out ahead to see what the enemy was doing. Kuromorimine was rushing to their positions as they were caught still trying to set up. Nelly got out the Fedorov rifle and decided to launch the attack.
"Everyone get ready!" Nelly asked her students. The Gregor students exited from their saps as they began to charge the short distance across to the enemy trench. The Kuromorimine students were better prepared so they began firing earlier than they had expected. Nelly looked around to see some of the students of the Gregor legion were getting shot down, she got to a safe location before opening fire with the Fedorov rifle she had. One of the Kuromorimine students had been shot down as the rest got ready with their grenades. They took them out and pulled the pins. After that happened, they tossed them over into the Kuromorimine trench while Nelly decided to race up to join her friends. The grenades exploded, taking out the two machine gun positions while most of the Kuromorimine students had scattered. Nelly was in the process of reloading when her students decided to attack the inside of the trench. The Kuromorimine students had come prepared as they got out clubs to batter these students down and retake the first trench line. Nelly had finished reloading and decided to join in the attack again. "Take the ground above the trenches." She ordered. Some of the students went on ahead and into the trench but she knew it was a better decision to fight above the enemy. She ran up before leaping over the enemy trench and going in to support her friends.
Nelly ran up to see the Gregor students of hers battling it out with Kuromorimine. Nelly pointed the rifle at one of the Kuromorimine students and began firing away, the student had been brought down as Nelly continued to fire away at the others that were trying to rush in. The Gregor legion continued to advance despite Kuromorimine trying their best to hold them back. Nelly spotted more Kuromorimine students before firing the rifle on them. Their foe began to retreat as they knew their position could no longer be held. Now came the chance to take the rest of the ground. Nelly and the others charged forward as they came upon their artillery positions they were setting up before Nelly and the others showed up as they continued to drive Kuromorimine from the artillery dugout. Once done, Nelly turned back, she realized that they had taken more casualties than before.
"Alexandra, this is Nelly, we have taken the Kuromorimine position but we've suffered higher casualties than before taking the enemy trench. Kuromorimine is showing up and this will hamper our advance." Nelly reported to Alexandra that she had taken the enemy trench but she was starting to get worried as Kuromorimine was much more organized than the Dual Alliance and was able to hold their ground and had inflicted heavy casualties, more than they expected.
"Okay I'm off to a meeting. Looks Kuromorimine has held the 8th army, for now." Alexandra told Nelly that progress had ebbed away but for now. Kuromorimine has blunted Alexandra's advance.
Even with the advance blunted, the position for the Dual Alliance and Kuromorimine was critical. Alexandra picked up the phone to call Kay to see if she was ready to go.
"Kay are you there?" Alexandra asked to see if she was able to go.
"This is Kay, what do you need?" Kay asked. Alexandra began to think about what she was going to say.
"Okay is the West Front ready to go?" Alexandra asked. She wanted Kay to launch an attack now to take the pressure off of her front and advance.
"Fourth army is still getting ready, I'm going to ask if I can have the assault delayed as we need more artillery." Kay told Alexandra that she needed more artillery to break through the enemy.
"Kay, your 4th army has nearly 900 artillery pieces, more than my combined force and you're asking for more?" Alexandra told Kay that she had more artillery guns than any other army. She has to attack the trenches if she has to.
"Give me another hundred artillery pieces and we should be ready to attack later on today." Kay told Alexandra that she needed more artillery guns if she was going to be able to break through.
"Okay I'll give you the artillery guns but promise me you will attack later on today." Alexandra told Kay that she would only get her guns if she decided to launch her offensive to support the former.
"Okay I will attack later." Kay told Alexandra. Alexandra nodded with approval.
"Good, the artillery is on its way." Alexandra replied. She hung up as Kay was going to get her wish. Suddenly Nicholas appeared as he was carrying some paperwork for Alexandra. He the placed it down on his desk and began to speak.
"Change of plan Alexandra." Nicholas began. He sat in a chair and began to speak with her. "Instead of taking swinging south to take Przemyśl, you will swing northwest to take the railroad junction at Kowel, advance to Brest-Litovsk and then head to the northeast to capture Baranovichi with Kay to encircle Kuromorimine and cut off their supplies. I don't know how successful this would be but all I know is that if you follow these orders, you can do this." Nicholas told Alexandra that he had hope in her and the plan now was to cut off the supply of Kuromorimine.
"If Kay can launch her attack on time and if Count High School is convinced to join our side at this very moment, the Dual Alliance will certainly be knocked out of the war. All hopes for an early victory now rest on this front." Alexandra told Nicholas that their hope to end the war early was on this front and this front alone.
"Good. I'll continue to monitor your progress while the offensive continues onward." Nicholas told Alexandra. He then turned and left the room. Alexandra slumped back into her chair and was thinking about what was going to happen the 8th army had been held up by Kuromorimine so far and she didn't know what kind of tricks that Kuromorimine was going to run into. The radio buzzed again.
"Alexandra, this is Nathalia, The Denikin Iron Division has run into Maho's steel division. I don't know if iron will clash well with steel?" Nathalia began. Alexandra began to think about it for a moment and she began speaking.
"Don't know either but we still think the 8th army is being held up, dig in for now and let the other fronts catch up." Alexandra instructed them to hold their positions and allow the other armies to catch up before continuing the advance.
"Okay Alexei has told me that the 9th army wants to keep advancing to take more objectives." Nathalia also added that one of the armies wants to continue advancing. Alexandra began to think about it and came to a conclusion.
"Okay he should be allowed to continue the advance but tell him to not go far." Alexandra told Nathalia that Alexei was allowed to advance but he shouldn't go far until the other armies catch up and they could continue the advance. Alexandra had also felt disassembled especially since Nicholas told her to take Kowel instead of what she originally wanted to take. Alexandra knew she had another objective to take.
Alexei was standing against the river as the students had finished building their rafts. They needed to transport their Maxim guns as well as the trench mortars to help conduct the breakthrough.
"Cavalry is looking for a bridge but we're going to take the direct path which is across the river, I hope you guys know how to swim." Alexei told his students that the 9th army was preparing to cross the river.
"Okay." The students called out. Alexei nodded before he stepped onto one of the rafts the students had built. Another student loaded the Maxim gun on there before one more loaded with the ammunition belts. She took the large stick and began to push her way across the river. The students loaded up and did the same thing. They continued to cross the river as several students were waiting for them on the other side. They spotted the rafts coming from the river, they were getting closer and closer. Alexei pulled out his revolver and began firing at the students at the other side of the river. One student was struck down while the others began to fire back as they wanted to be able to prevent them from breaking through. Even then they couldn't do it as their fire was scattered and uneven. Eventually, Alexei and his group made it across the river and quickly set up their maxim gun on the other side. The Maxim gun fired at the students with their rifles while the others made it to the other side. Alexei continued to observe while the Dual Alliance students fled the scene in panic. The rest followed and had made it to the other side and began to advance further up. The 9th army had crossed the river.
"How many casualties during the crossing?" Alexei asked if they had taken any losses while crossing the river.
"Just one but she will be okay." Another student answered his request. "Also the cavalry had found a bridge across the Prut River and will join them in the fight."
"Well done, send Alexandra the news while I go support the student army." Alexei told them to send Alexandra the message that they had successfully crossed the river. Alexei walked away as the students began to send the message.
Alexei had marched off to join the students while the mortars had been firing away. They were preparing for another assault but they didn't have the time to dig the saps as they wanted to take this objective by noon.
"We're going to go ahead with the attack. We think the defenders have been demoralized." One of the students had told him. Alexei looked ahead before he knew he needed to take the city." He had finished reloading his revolver before pointing it at the sky.
"Okay and attack!" Alexei called out. He exited the trench while the other students followed behind. The mortars continued to fire away and their Maxim guns firing away too to cover them. Alexei and the others quickly moved ahead with the students forming a ring around their leader. However, the Dual Alliance students weren't firing away but they looked like they had given up. They tossed down their rifles and decided to surrender.
"I surrender, don't shoot!" A female student called out. Alexei looked at her before deciding to escort her to the rear. The students moved into the next city at lunchtime.
Alexandra was busy trying to reorganize the 8th army as Kuromorimine had launched an unsuccessful counter attack in her attempt to slow them down. A message had come up as it was Konstantina.
"Alexandra, I got some news from the Tsarevich." Konstantina began. "Alexei and his friends have crossed the Prut River and had only taken a single wounded casualty while crossing. His advance continued and at noon today, Alexei captured Kolomea and inflicted another four thousand casualties on the Dual Alliance, many of them had been taken prisoner."
"Nice. Another hole has been ripped into the lines as the slavic speaking students had surrendered in growing numbers." Alexandra began but she felt like needed to address something else. "Even though this advance has so far been successful, it's starting to come at a high price and even though the Dual Alliance has taken huge losses so far those losses are mostly prisoners not counting those that we have been shot at. But we've taken heavy casualties ourselves as well. I'm also getting fresh students from the rear of and we're running out of the well trained students we had at the start of the offensive." Alexandra explained that their crack force students were getting ground down and they were running out of experienced students they had.
"Okay." Konstantina told Alexandra before she hung up. Alexandra grumbled before she sighed. She needed to continue. She didn't know how to proceed with her plan and figure out how to continue the offensive. The phone began to ring again as someone was trying to get through to her, Alexandra picked up the phone to see who it was, it was Kay. "Hello?"
"Hey Alexandra, we're ready to launch our attack now that we have our artillery guns, we're pounding their defenses away." Kay began. Alexandra was excited that Kay was now launching her attack against the enemy; perhaps there was still some hope that they would be able to continue attacking against the weak enemy.
"Good to hear, wish me luck." Alexandra told Kay that she needed to get ready for her attack and now she was praying that Kay's attack was going to draw Kuromorimine's attention away from her.
Kay's bombardment wasn't as accurate as Alexandra was hoping for. Even though the bombardment was better compared to Lake Naroch, it was a lengthy bombardment and it was inaccurate. Plus Kay wasn't planning on digging saps to the enemy as a means of not crossing as far from the enemy trench. Kay was looking at the watch, the clock was ticking down while figuring out what they were going to do if they were going to attack. Kay grew the whistle before blowing it. The students began to exit the trenches and run across the distance to get to the enemy trenches. The inaccurate bombardment left the middle school's defense still standing plus the long distance to get to the enemy trench meant that Kay had no cover. Jajka's wave came out as she too began to charge across the distance to the enemy trench and Mika followed up with the last wave. The students in the enemy trench meanwhile noticed this as they began to fire away.. Kay looked around to see many students of her first wave were getting cut down. It was that machine gun that was now giving them the problem. Kay ducked behind cover before pulling out her Springfield rifle and began firing it at the machine gun crew. More waves began to charge out as they wanted to help take the trench as they were now all crashing against each other. Kay fired and took out the machine gunner and reloaded. The next one went over to fire and continued to spray away. Kay ducked from cover again to take another shot and shot up the next machine gunner. This was an inefficient way to keep machine guns silent and prevent them from firing. The waves of Saunders students finally caused the middle schooler's defense to buckle but they continued to fire against Saunders students for as long as they could.
"Retreat!" Erwin called out. He and the remaining middle schoolers began to fall back as Kay and her friends entered the trench. She looked around to see most of the students in her first three waves have been mowed down. The students raced along the communication trenches while the middle school students were using the Mg08/15's they had as it was a more portable Maxim gun. The students were still getting mowed down but eventually they took the support trench. The remaining students raced along as the artillery crews began firing as they wanted to take out the attackers before they touched their artillery. It was no use and eventually they were forced back as well. Kay had managed to beat her foe.
"Okay enemy defenses have been taken and I think the enemy is on the run." Kay began as she gave the reports of her attack. Alexandra looked around her field to see that there were more trenches they needed to cross and Kay had just taken the first line of defenses. She looked behind to see many students had been mowed down to take the first line and she didn't use refined tactics to break through the enemy lines.
"Kay you only took the first line of defenses and your attack had produced way too many casualties. Your attack barely made a dent and will not take Kuromorimine's attention away from me." Alexandra told Kay. Alexandra sighed as Kay's attack was an absolute disaster. Kay used mass wave tactics against well entrenched infantry. She wasn't able to go anywhere and had pushed the enemy back only half a mile and it wasn't enough to divert attention away from Alexandra. Alexandra hung up the phone without Kay's response back. She buried her head in her hands trying to contemplate what to do next. She had to reorganize the student army as there was no way she was going to properly continue the offensive. She grabbed the phone and decided to contact the commanders who hadn't seen action as of yet. "Megumi."
"Yes?" Megumi asked as she wanted to figure out if they were going to be attacking next.
"You and Lola have to attack tomorrow. Kay's attack has failed, and we are waiting for the other armies to catch up. I want to launch an all out attack before Kuromorimine arrives in force to continue cutting us down."
"I'll tell Lola about it and Nicholas to see if we can have extra forces to help complete the breakthroughs." Megumi told Alexandra that she will need some help to break the enemy and wear the Dual Alliance down.
"Make some calls." Alexandra told Megumi before she hung up. She knew things weren't going the way she hoped for, getting new objectives, Kay's disastrous attack and now the fact that the offensive was going to take a turn for the worse, Alexandra knew that she needed to keep pushing.
It was now up to Alexandra alone to break through the enemy lines.
[A/N]: Day two of the offensive complete and Kuromorimine is showing up. The 8th army has been held and now they can't go anywhere. Alexei meanwhile sees some success today with the capture of two more objectives but now with Kay's attack going nowhere and not achieving the results that Alexandra hoped for, Alexandra now has to change up her plan to see if she could complete all of her objectives before Kuromorimine arrives in force to stop the offensive let's see if Alexandra continues to break through the enemy lines.
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