During the fighting between the Donskie Kazaki and the Red Guard, a few hundred students and adults fled southward. All of these people were former czarists and were being led by Nathalia Kornilov. For the past few days they were harassed by the Red Guard and the lack of supplies that plagued the group. They had made it to the Kuban steppe where they were going to set up their counter revolution to finally depose Fumie and the Reds that controlled the school. The group were still trying to set themselves up while besieging Ekaterinodar. They had sieged it over the past couple of days and its surrender would give the entire group enough supplies for the next week or so. Nathalia looked at the group while they were reading over their maps.
"One last assault should do it. We should have the city of Ekaterinodar within our hands and even better we can begin setting up our counter revolution base." Nathalia explained to the group, "After we get it set up, we can capture the rest of the Kuban Steppe and finally complete step one." Nathalia looked over the map as capturing this city would be important if they were going to push on ahead and complete the first step of controlling territory and recruiting more students to their side. However what Nathalia realized was the fact that she wasn't going to live to see the end of it.
"Artillery incoming!" One of the students called out, Nathalia looked up to see the shell strike directly on her headquarters. A massive explosion ripped through the place as the map had been torn to tatters, the table smashed and the men, women and students lay scattered, their attention was on their leader Nathalia. Nathalia had received the worst of the artillery strike. She looked over as her legs were weak almost if they were made of glass and had been dropped on the floor. She touched her chest as it was quickly covered in dark red liquid and it felt surprisingly warm. Nathalia realized the worst thing had happened to her, the dark red liquid was her own blood. Nathalia felt weak as the others gathered around her. Nathalia's injuries were severe, from her chest to the calves of her legs were bleeding severely. The others gathered around her.
"By the looks of things, her injuries are very severe, she's not going to live." One of the adults told the group. Nathalia felt her life was slipping away from her at a rapid rate and her eyes began to close. She turned her head weakly to the man that would be her successor, she began to speak to the man, her voice trembling as it was losing strength.
"You have inherited a heavy burden, may god help you." Nathalia weakly told the man that will be taking over the role for her. That man's name was Anton Denikin. With 350 people left, he had to liberate all of Saunders.
"Call off the siege and prepare to march back to the Don." Denikin told the others that the siege would need to be called off and they could reassess their situation, recruit more reinforcements and plan from there. Denikin walked out of the smashed headquarters as he was going to take full advantage of the Don to get help. While marching alongside some of the people that helped plan the siege of Ekaterinodar, he was speaking to one of the medical staff. "So what's the status of Nathalia?"
"She's dead. The bleeding was too severe and we couldn't save her." One of the medical staff told Denikin. Denikin nodded before he began to think of something else that was on his mind.
"We better get reinforcements within the next day or two as I want to retake the Kuban. We're all very experienced people who fought in the war. With this experience, we should take the best students and fight the Red Guard which is nothing more than an armed mob at this point. This civil war will be perfect for mounted troops so if we convince the Donskie Kazaki to fight for us, we can easily smash our way back into the Kuban." Denikin explained the plan that they needed the best students to be on his side and if they weren't willing to fight for him, they needed to not side with the Red Guard. The few troops Denikin had on hand, needed to be rested and restrengthened. He was going to need all the help he could get.
Kay meanwhile had fled further south, she had escaped the worst of the revolution before it happened. She was mostly alone. She had less than twenty-five students on hand. Most of them being her loyal followers from the Saunders Legion. Most of the Legion had either scattered or were forced to fight for the Red Guard. Kay had gathered most of the students at a mountainside village where they were taking note of their supplies.
"How much food do we have left?" Kay asked the students about the food situation that they were facing. One of the students patted her canteen but it was mostly empty.
"We have nothing and water is running out too." Another student had told Kay. Kay sighed before taking a seat on the ground while the students had trouble starting up a fire with a bundle of wet straw and a couple of sticks.
"How did this all go wrong? I wanted what's best for the school in my mind and in my heart. With the people going against me, sometimes I ask, "Is there anyone that is friends with me that are not in my legion?"" Kay asked them as she was trying her best to retrace all of her steps to figure out where exactly went wrong and caused the people to turn against the school.
"You tried. But we can't fight the Red Guard alone, we have no food, no water, few weapons and very little ammunition. If we got into a serious fight with the Red Guard, we would only be able to resist them for a few minutes before we are all captured and slaughtered." The girl told Kay that the situation for them looked grim. "We need to get food, supplies and more able bodied students to fight for us." She continued as they needed to begin getting more students if they were going to have a successful fight against the Reds. Kay clenched her fist as if she wasn't ready to give up just yet.
"You're right. Why fold to the Communists when we can take the school back and give them more freedom, being happy for Saunders and importing the constitution from the country that Saunders should aspire to be like. Screw California, we will make the school more like Texas! Get the gray uniforms from the true Civil War and a cowgirl hat for me. The Saunders Legion will be renamed to the Texan Confederate Legion!" Kay's speech fired up the legion to keep trying to resist and fight on in any way they could. While Denikin had headed back to the Don to get reinforcements, Kay was going to go around recruiting anyone she could find along the way. Maybe figure out about weapon and ammunition stores that she could get her hands on if she was to equip her army.
"We're definitely going to need some help along the way." Her friend told her while they marched through the mountains.
Meanwhile with Megumi, Nelly and Lola, the three of them along with the Gregor Legion had a big, audacious and rather wacky plan of escape, they were riding trains they had borrowed from Pravda and they were paying to use these trains with rifles. Tensions between the riders and Pravda were uneasy. The train pulled into the next station as two Pravda students were waiting for them.
"Are you passing through?" The first one asked them. Megumi began to think about it while Lola stood there rather uneasy about the whole situation. Megumi looked at the guard while Nelly held her arm out, trying to restrain Lola from acting out.
"Yeah we just need to get these four thousand students off of Saunders." Megumi explained that they were evacuating the legion from the school so they could go home. The guard looked at them as if they were in good order.
"Okay, just hand us a few rifles and you should be good to go." The guard told them. Megumi knew that the legion were running low on rifles and didn't want to give more to the guards for them to pass on through.
"We need these rifles, we don't know what's ahead." Megumi explained, several students came forth as they too were going to support her. The guard looked at her as if the guard's short temper was going to get the better of her. She then pulled out her handcuffs and walked over.
"You know the drill!" The guard snapped. She went over to handcuff Megumi as several more came forth. Megumi tried her best to resist but the guards came over and quickly wrestled her to the ground. Within a couple of minutes, Megumi and several others were arrested. Lola and Nelly watched as their friends were taken away to be questioned. "This train will stay here until the remaining rifles have been handed over." The guard told them that they needed to give up everything if they were to continue. For Nelly, having the students captured by the reds and being forced to give up what remaining weapons they had left was too much for her. She turned to Lola and when they realized they weren't going anywhere, she began to speak:
"We're stuck here and we know we can't evacuate the Legion on foot. We need Megumi to help stage the evacuation but with her now gone, we can't do that. We're stretching so far along that we need to capture the entire thing." Nelly told the group that being stuck in enemy territory was not the way they were going to do it but with Megumi and some of the legionnaires captured, an armed uprising was the only way forward if they were going to keep moving. Nelly and Lola exited the train as they knew that they needed to secure the communication network if they were to start their uprising along the entire railway. The group had stormed out of their way to head over to the communications building. They were going to make their demands clear.
Nelly and Lola barged their way into the building, the two Red Guards that were stationed there were taken completely by surprise. The other students went to seize the rest of the town and secure their train. Within a few minutes, Lola had tied up the students of the Red Guard while Nelly was busy giving out the order. The order read thus:
We will stay and fight in Saunders until our sisters are freed and we can leave in peace.
The message was relayed back to Saunders that the Gregor Legion had no intention in leaving now. For Lisa, whom she received the telegram from, she was furious about the news that had happened regarding the situation.
"Disarm the legion, those that are willing to be with us will join the Red Guard while the others will be sent to work camps." Lisa gave the order while typing in. Nelly heard the words coming through that the Red Guard was now on its way to disarming the legion. Nelly knew she was ready for a fight. For the Red Guard, this order was going to be impossible, they were going to be taking on one of the most battle hardened fighting forces in Saunders who despite having a student rifle ration of 10:1, they were going to prove that Pravda was going to mess with the wrong opponent. On top of that, the Red Guard was merely just an armed mob, not a proper army. Megumi and her friends were freed shortly afterward and had gathered as Nelly was going to make a speech.
"Gregor Legion, the Red Guard is sending its troops right this way to crush us." Nelly began. She was itching for a fight against the Guards. "Brethren, we have only one response to this command. If you want our weapons, come and get them!" Nelly called out to the Gregor Legion to begin an uprising against Pravda.
"Come and get them!" The Gregor students chanted up and down the town. The chant grew louder and louder as it was going to be a pretext for what was going to happen. They were now starting an uprising against Pravda and they had the single largest group of about four thousand students. Leading them were Nelly, Lola and Megumi and it was now their job to fight their way out of hostile territory. Lisa had poked the bear and kicked it in her response, now she was going to face the consequences of that decision.
Later on that night, a man was being held captive with his wife by the Red Guard. The man knew if he told the truth to the Red Guard, he was going to die. He looked at his wife, not wanting her to witness his death. Then he pulled out his watch bracelet and gave it to her.
"Clean it." He told her. The wife had tears in her eyes, it was the same watch she had given him many years ago and he was sending her away. She turned and walked away, still holding onto the watch and crying her eyes out. She then stuffed the watch bracelet into her pocket before turning and walking back to her husband.
"I won't clean it, I will face the consequences with you, even offer myself to die alongside you. I will always love you and I don't want to see you go." She told him. Then the interrogator opened the door as he walked over and sat down with the two of them. He was going to question them. He looked at them and he began to speak.
"Why were you arrested sir?" He would begin. The man began to think about the question and he had to answer it with honesty.
"I am arrested because I am a Saunders adult, it is the only crime I am guilty of committing." He responded. The man feigned surprise but he needed to ask his wife why she was there with his husband.
"And why were you arrested?" He asked her. She too began to think about it and had to respond in the same way as her husband.
"I was not arrested, I came here out of my own free will. I have lived with my husband happily for many years and I will stay by his side until the very end." She told the interrogator. The interrogator was shocked when he heard this. He tried to figure out what he was going to say to her and he was racked with anxiety. After a minute of thinking, the interrogator began to speak again.
"Such women aren't to be found every day." The interrogator would tell her. He paused before turning to her husband. "You owe your life to your wife. Go!" The Interrogator told him. The two of them got up before they walked out together.
The two of them would watch as the CHEKA would execute a hundred other adults of Saunders. They were lucky to not be in the mess. His wife turned as she was holding something for him a black colored sheepskin Karakul hat.
"You'll need this." She told him. She handed him the hat. He would put the hat on his head as he began to speak to her.
"Take the kids and leave them in the care of your mother. Then return to help be a nurse in the war to come. We have faced the firing squad but they will not take down the Black Baron of course, not Pyotr Wrangel!" Wrangel would instruct his wife to get the kids to safety before they were going to find a Saunders army that was willing to take them in and help fight against the Reds. The two of them would walk off as they had some work to do.
The next day would come as for Pravda, things weren't looking good. Lisa had given the order to disarm the Gregor Legion and they were now on their way.
"We are equipping the hundreds of students of the Red Guard with our large armory but the question is, even though they are good at winning political battles, we're sending them in without proper organization. They will neither be able to attack or defend very effectively, changes need to be made if we are to better organize ourselves and grow our strength to the point where we can win. The possibility of losing is very high." Nonna explained to Fumie that the Red Guard that they used for so long was untested and based on some tests Nonna was able to do, they weren't very strong and the strongest and the most experienced of the students had joined the White Army. "We're sending in armed mobs into the fray and they will not come back unscathed." Fumie began to think about it as the situation outwardly looked a little grim. Fumie knew changes needed to be made if the Red Guard was to be reorganized into a proper army.
"Okay I will have two changes made if we are to reorganize ourselves from the mob of the guard to proper divisions of an army." Fumie began. "Since this school is full of experienced officer like students, finding them isn't the problem, the problem with them is that most of these experienced students like you said before, have joined the White Army. They do not like the taking of us well compared to the enthusiastic first years and those that have suffered under these officers."
"So what are we going to do about the officer situation?" Nonna asked Fumie if she had any ideas on how they were going to take care of the officer problem.
"Simple, we will create new ones as well as a special deputy to go along with the Officer called the Commissar. These Commissars will ensure the loyalty of everyone in the unit, handle morale and take over when the officer goes down." Fumie told Nonna that they would get the loyalty of everyone in the Red Guard if they were to be restored. "And to ensure everyone's loyalty, especially those with our own command and officers, we should track everyone's familial relationships and if they consider defecting, we can use them as hostages to make them think twice before they make the decision and head over to the enemy."
"Good idea, but the question is, where should we find people to make them Commissars?" Nonna asked Fumie that they needed to figure out who would be a commissar and who wouldn't. Fumie began to think about it before she began to speak.
"We should take the adults and students of Pravda to become commissars. As they are the most loyal to the Communist ideology. But we should also let them handle units of students if we are to win." Fumie explained that they should use their own school if the Communists were to win the civil war. Nonna nodded.
"I'll start putting out flyers looking for anyone who is willing to become a Commissar for our cause." Nonna told them before she turned and headed out. Fumie's plan was coming together as they were making the Red Guard stronger and they will continue putting more strength into it in the days to come. Fumie waited around for a few minutes before the door knocked and someone wanted to come in.
"Come in." Fumie explained. The door opened as a tall man stepped in to greet her. He closed the door behind him before he sat down in the chair. The man was tall yet a somewhat muscular build, he had dark brown hair with a sunken down face due to his age, he looked like he was in his mid forties as for the patchy facial hair he had. On top of his head was a giant sheepskin hat. "So what are you here for?" Fumie asked the man.
"I am here to join the Commissar program for Pravda." He began. Fumie nodded as if they had gotten themselves their first volunteer for the program.
"And your last name?" Fumie asked the man who he was.
"Nakhimov." Nakhimov told Fumie his last name. Fumie nodded before looking at the man.
"Welcome Nakhimov, you will be the first Commissar of Pravda." Fumie nodded as she welcomed him. She looked and she began to give orders. "First order is to help train the students up in the ways of Communism." Fumie told him.
"Right." Nakhimov responded. He walked off to see what he was going to be able to do. Alexandra walked in next.
"Should we put more emphasis on training, the threat is much stronger than we had anticipated." Alexandra asked. Fumie looked at her.
"Yes we need better trained students. Lisa sent the Red Guard in as they hadn't been trained as of yet." Fumie explained. Alexandra nodded before she saluted.
"Yes, I'll see what I can do." Alexandra told Fumie before she left the room. This was going to be a little hard for her to do.
With the Red Guard slowly evolving, Denikin, Megumi, Kay and Wrangel needed to secure as much territory as they could before the Red Guard became too powerful for them to handle. Pravda was being more hands on but these next couple of days were going to test what Pravda was capable of if anything.
Things were heating up within Saunders.
[A/N]: Longer than the last few chapters I have been putting out but this is the beginning of Part 5 and that means the Civil War is beginning. With the school's whites scattered with the largest group of whites being the Gregor Legion. The school is going to begin fighting if they are to survive. Pravda meanwhile is making changes to the Red Guard if they are to defeat their foes.
Nathalia Kornilov is dead sadly, she was killed by an artillery strike that hit their headquarters and her successor is going to be one of the commanders of the White Army. There are four commanders as of currently with one more on his way. The next chapter will be them beginning to fight among each other as Reds and Whites will clash. See you later.