Summoning Our Country - NHS Kai

Chapter 24.5: With Thundering Motors

NOTE: After a 3 month absence (2 weeks if you were following the Emissaries series), we're back. While I'm afraid to say that this is another GVE chapter (two at that), this was something that the Team wanted to do to showcase more of their capabilities and, admittingly, do our own chapter/s that's all just about warfighting. This is also a chance to give better justice to Leifor (who in the original just disappeared after the GVE clapped them) and do some cleaning on the previous GVE chapters (currently WIP). More importantly, I'll announce that the releases will be slower, just like with the NHS translations, so bear with us.

Discord: https://discord.gg/wEp44XuaT3

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NOTE: We've created a document wherein you can view the different references of the various military hardware mentioned in this chapter, which you can view here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m8IGI1y_Cos3E_TaBD5eWW-imh8jbHFkXu005RWjmFk/edit?usp=sharing

Cent. Calendar 05/08/1639, outside Sanders, Leifor, 19:50

The sun had long set beneath the horizon to the west, but flashes of light erupting all over continued to interrupt the reign of darkness. A daunting light show of bright red tracers, muzzle flashes from high caliber guns, and hellfire erupting from entire city blocks being leveled by bombs and artillery rounds coming down from above could be seen from a distance. As gruesome and terrifying as it looked, the fighting was fortunately far from Sanders, a major industrial city that had been formerly on the frontlines barely a month ago. Now, it was a city without life–its people forced behind the shutters and doors of their houses by fear–as the artillery and air wing of the Imperial Gra Valkan Army (IGVA) consistently pushed the frontline further and further away, leaving in their wake a demolished Leiforian resistance.

Somewhere nearby, a camouflaged command installation of the occupying forces stood. Here, commanders of the 86th Panzergrenadier Division, one of the five mechanized infantry divisions deployed in Leifor, had gathered–far from the eyes and ears of their enemies–to discuss something important, for winds blowing down from the Malmund mountains far to the northeast carry unsavory news from the still-unconquered parts of the country.

"As you were."

Generalleutnant Bertram Stroman, having entered the brightly lit meeting room to an array of officers in their fatigues who stood up to salute him, ordered them back to their seats. Before taking his own seat, he unscrolled a rolled-up map and placed it down on the table for all to see. His eyes looked heavy–perhaps even greater than the weight of the canvas he unfurled.

"I'll get straight down to business."

The map was a geographical rendition of the expansive extent of the Federal Empire of Leifor. Drawn on it were the approximate frontlines as of today, the 5th of Aureit (Month 8), disposition of Gra Valkan (in blue) and Leiforian (in red) forces, and most important of all were the filled arrows pointing from their frontlines towards Leiforian positions. Near the top edge of the map were the characters for "Unternehmen Rammbock." The more the officers looked at it, the more their eyes matched the weight shown by Bertram's. Sensing the weight of the atmosphere in the room, he tried to level things by saying that it was beyond his control.

"Yes, yes, I know. There are already complications, but this is already approved for the 12th; our hands are tied."

The map was none other than a general overview of Unternehmen Rammbock, a major pre-emptive offensive centered on a pincer on the remnants of an Army Group based around the city of Havro.

One of the officers scratched their head and sighed.

"I guess this is what the silence from command has led up to."