Chronicles of Two Powers

Chapter 25 - Battle of Haedleigh I

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Fifty Miles from the Frontline. Alervon Camp Hawak.

Coastal Town of Mossespire,

December 13th, 1773.

She gazes out over the coastline, eyes fixed on the flat-decked silhouettes of the warships anchored offshore, the Ōsumi-class tank landing ships, as they were formally known. Their broad, open decks stretch out like steel plains against the grey horizon.

Above the main deck, her reserve forces stand assembled. The majority were drawn from the Army, equipped with their current-issue gear. From a distance, she watches as several infantrymen disembark aboard the roaring Landing Craft Air Cushion vehicles gliding toward the shore.

As the craft settled and the ramps lowered, the soldiers straightened into disciplined rows. When the royal princess stepped forward to meet them, they bowed with practised precision before swiftly forming up, each man taking his place with crisp, unified motion.

Yet Princess Elizabeth's expression was far from ceremonial. Conflict weighed on her features. She glanced toward General Victorian, her voice low but steady as she posed the question that had been troubling her since dawn.

"Why did the parliament send out the army when the Royal Marines have been equipped and trained equally as those from the armies of the United States and Japan? Don't you think that bringing these men into the frontline with our more primitive firearms would give them a massive disadvantage? "

For a moment, General Victorian seemed eager to sidestep the question. But under the princess's steady gaze, she reluctantly answered.

"Your Highness... we brought only about five hundred Marines to the front. Given our position, we simply don't have enough manpower to maintain the siege on the capital. Both the United States and Japan informed us that an invasion would require anywhere from five thousand to forty thousand troops. But considering the Artesian Empire's current state, they advised that we deploy a minimum of five thousand."

Even with five thousand troops, they should have been equipped with something far more modern. The Hindoe Kingdom had already suffered severe casualties, and the last thing Elizabeth wanted was for their own forces to meet the same fate. The Aetesian Empire outnumbered them five to one, and yet, the only reason the situation hadn't collapsed entirely was that delegates from the two major superpowers had arrived at the last possible moment to save them.

When this war finally ended, it was clear that a second industrial build-up would be unavoidable if the Alervon Kingdom wished to stand on equal footing again. Modernisation was no longer a choice but a necessity. Yet politically, the path ahead would not be simple. Many among the nobility, rooted in their agrarian wealth and traditions, would be hesitant. Even resistant to the economic overhaul such modernisation would demand.

But if the kingdom hoped to rebuild, survive, and grow, Elizabeth knew they would have to embrace change. And fortunately, the majority of their people seemed not really ready to do just that.

Helicopters flying the flag of the rising red sun thundered across the sky above them, their rotors whipping the cold air as they ferried crates of supplies toward the staging grounds. A second landing craft steadily pushed its way into view beneath them. When its front doors let out a metallic groan, lowering, the dockyard trembled slightly.