The Final Offensive | 0 BBT

[Detroix]

General Herman prepared for a meeting with his officers. They were preparing for what would most likely be the last campaign of the war. He was one of the best commanders in the Republic with significant achievements during the Rebellion and an old friend of Kaiser Wilhelm, one of the most influencial men in the Republic. But he wasn’t invincible and his very recent failure on Crimsica reminded him of that. That’s why he was very nervous and disorganized today. The Council, and the Kaiser, were very clear. This time, he cannot fail.

He straightened his uniform for the last time and walked into the meeting room. He quickly noticed that he forgot his hat that usually covered his curly, red hair that often took away his seriousness. His Iron Cross was also dangling loosesly on its chain instead of being right at the split in his collar. Unlike other medals that were pinned to the chest, the Iron Cross was in a form of a necklace. He had many other medals, put he disliked wearing them outside of official ceremonies. Now there wasn’t enough time to correct it. Hopefully the plan wasn’t packed with this sort of oversights.

He sat down at the head of a long table. At the sides there were officers of various ranks, species and nations that were members of the League. It started out as a military alliance between various more autocratic states within the Republic, now turned into a political and economic union. It included very close cooperation between their militaries. Which often resulted in multinational armies such as this one.

He used his personal computer to display a strategic map of a planet and begun his briefing. “This here is Pernambuco. An UPSR planet right in the middle of League territory. A perfect staging ground for a future invasion. Which is why the Council made it a priority to take control of it, before a ceasefire is declared for the duration of the peace talks.” After the Democratic Alliance surrendered a few months ago, officially ceding its occupied territories, UPSR and the League have reached a stalemate and by this point both sides were reading for negotiations. These were scheduled to happen in about a month, so both sides were getting desperate for even a minor breakthrough.

Multiple points highlited on the map. “Our goal is to take control of the planet’s major population centers before the commies can muster up an organized defence and solidify their frontlines. It has been fortified in preparation for an attack, but due to our blocade many of these new fortifications are underequipped and staffed by unexperienced conscripts.” Lets just hope that comitting the best ships to this area won’t result in losses on other fronts. But for now, it seems that the UPSR is too focused on holding ground against many other smaller attacks to conduct offensives.

Several more points in a different color highlighted on the map. “The first attack will be made by Stormtroopers and Botniaks.” Botniaks weren’t part of the League, but were the biggest mercenary providers in the Republic. If there was a conflict, at least one side was hiring them. “They will land in various smaller towns and military space ports that will serve as logistical depos. After the rest of the reinforcements is brought in, you will advance towards your designated cities. Hail Kaiser!” Herman shouted while raiding his fist in the air. Other officers performed their local versions of salutes and dispersed to their transport vessels to brief their troops and make preparations for planetfall.

[Detroix]

The landing craft entered the atmosphere under constant anti-air fire and intense dogfights. They were constantly shaking and sounding lock-on alarms. Some suffered critical damage and fell down smoking only to crash into the forest below. Those troops that made it were met by artillery fire, but no ground resistance. Any troops were reserved for defense of bases and putting them in the field put them at risk of aerial bombardments.

“Why did they have to put us all they way in the back?” Asked Karl. He was known for his ambition and recklessness. At first he wanted to be a Commando, but after his application was rejected he enlisted in the Stormtroopers in hopes of achieving enough for them to reconsider his application.

“You should be grateful for that. Remember, the first ones on shore are the first ones to fall.” Answered Friedrich, the squad’s Sargeant, visibly annoyed. He failed his exams at the Kaiser’s Military Academy and assigned as a Sargeant, much lower rank than he hoped for. Despite coming of as harsh and bitter, partially to being at least ten years older than his squadmates, but he really cared for those under his command. “Or at least that’s what they told us in the academy.”

“Sarge, I’m pretty sure these are song lyrics.” Commented Gunter. He enlisted into the engineering core but wasn’t deemed experienced enough and put into infantry. He was very rational and analitical, often being Friedrich’s right hand.

Then the transport landed with a loud thud. The lights dimmed and the hatch begun to open. “Come on, move out! Lets give the Reds hell they deserve!” The Lieutenant called out from the crowd.

The squad started to move out, as fast as they could. When they were roughly halfway there somebody outside shouted “Artillery!” and chaos erupted. Everybody started desperately pushing to get outside while outside soldiers started shooting.

As the last soldiers were getting out, a loud roar and a flash appeared, heading right for the transport. An artillery rocket. Everybody jumped and laid down on the ground. All except one. When it hit, turning the ships into a smoldering wreck, a lone Stormtrooper was sent flying accross the small glade, only to be caught by Friedrich, throwing them both to the ground.

“Anne, are you alright?” Friedrich asked, horrified.

“Yeah, thanks for the save Sarge.” Anna answered in a quite and confused voice. She was very short, young and frail, so it wasn’t uncommon for her to be injured in situations considered safe by most. Another member of Friedrich’s squad, she used to be a nurse until she was conscripted from one of Democratic Alliance’s occupied worlds and had a very hard time fitting in. She was very fearful and compassionate, often having a hard time with accepting the reality of warfare. “But my armor took a little beating.” She pointed at a dent in one of her armor plates.

“Well, there goes the ship. I really liked this transport. I even put a graffiti inside.” Said Hans, Gunter’s twin brother. Despite having the same looks and story, they had radically different personalities. Hans, despite being just as intelligent, was often absent minded, failed to comprehend seriousness of various situations and could turn anything into a joke, opposed to his more serious brother.

“Hey, you five! You better get moving, or we will miss the randezvous with the rest of the battalion!” The Captain called them. And so, the battle of Pernambuco has begun.

[Detroix]

The column marched through the forest. It wasn’t particularly dense, so they moved quickly. They were occasionally targeted my artillery, but damage was minimal. After about an hour, they reached the randezvous point, a more densely forested area. Five similar sized columns approached from different directions. A temporary camp was set up, where their supplies were going to be stored during the assault.

After leaving a couple guards at the camp, the battalion moved out towards the enemy base. Once they reached the edge of the forest, a massive complex grew out in front if them. The grouping of buildings was encircled by a wall and a trench. Though once formidable, the outer wall was severely damaged, with multiple holes and crumbled sections. Many of the buildings had holes in their roofs or were smoking. All this damage was due to the prolonged aerial bombardment of the base. Without it, the casualties would be at least double the current projections.

“We’ve got around 200 meters of no man’s land until we reach the trenchline. We should be able to make it in under a minute.” Gunter said. He performed this kind of analisys before every attack to minimise the time they had to spend under machinegun fire.

“To get this sort of a time, somebody will have to carry Anna.” Hans replied jokingly.

“Drop it Hans, it’s her first time, she will learn. You couldn’t even make it under three during your training.” Friedrich silenced him, like he did many times before.

Before Anna could get involved in the discussion, the Captain started counting down. They all knew what it meant. It was the time for the assault.

[Detroix]

When the Captain got down to zero, the Stormtroopers dashed forward. The UPSR’s soldiers begun to fire back. The result was a hail of plasma shots from both sides. It was often difficult to figure out who exactly was firing.

Predictably, Anna was falling behind. The equipment was still quite heavy, even without the supply backpack. In the chaos she lost most of her squad in the chaos. She tried to communicate with them, but she got no reply. Hopefully they weren’t dead. They survived three years of war, Friedrich even more. They will survive.

At least she didn’t loose Karl. As a grenadier, he was equipped with an RPG launcher instead of a standard rifle. He and the others stayed behind the main wave and fired at fortified positions, such as michinegun bunkers. Just Anna cought up to him, he fired another shot. It slipped right through the opening in a bunker, blowing up everything inside. He looked up at Anna.

“I expected you to lag behind, but not that much. Now come on, we’ve gotta get going. Unless you want to miss all of the fun.”

“I wouldn’t call it ‘fun’.” Anna muttered quietly, so that Karl couldn’t hear her. But she followed him anyways. Going into the trenches with a companion was better than being left alone among the corpses and burnt grass.

“Do you think they are alright?” Anna asked.

“Who? Oh, the rest of the squad? Yeah, they most likely are. The advancement tactics they teach you in training are suprisingly effective. Nothing beats Commando reflexes and a repulsor sword, but ducking to the ground is still a good way of keeping yourself alive.” Karl answered.

As they ran towards the trenchline, where sounds of battle and flashes of light became more and more common. Karl put his launcher back, drawing his knife and pistol as he jumped into the trench. Anna fixed the bayonette on her rifle, which was essentially just a knife blade that slit out of the end of her rifle and she jumped in too.

She jumped right on top of a soldier, who just bayonetted a Stormtrooper. As he wasn’t looking, she hit him in the face with the back of her gun. The strike wasn’t very strong, but sudden enough to throw him to the ground and make him drop his rifle.

She aimed her rifle at him and then she froze. Unlike Stormtroopers, UPSR’s soldiers didn’t have face covers. And what she saw was not a face of an evil communist determined on destroying their way of life. It was just a scared teenager, not much older than herself. She begun to lower her rifle.

Then the soldier drew his knife and jumped on her. A light-blue shot of plasma flew from behind her shoulder and hit him in the head. He dropped dead before her. For a couple seconds she just stood frozen, breathing heavely and her heart pounding. Only Karl’s shout from behind her forced her to turn around.

“What the fuck are you doing?! Why didn’t you kill him?! If I wasn’t there, you would have been dead!”

“He was scared and unarmed!”

“From what I saw it was quite the opposite.”

“Well, I didn’t know that.” Anna said embarassed.

“Listen to me. They aren’t going to show you mercy, so shouldn’t do that either if you want to come out alive.”

“I don’t know if I can…” She didn’t finish, but Karl knew what she was going to say.

“Kill someone? I thought that too at the start. But you will get used to it. Now come on, we are falling behind. I don’t want to be rembered as the guy who cowered in a trench the entire time.”

[Detroix]

Friedrich, Hans and Gunter ran accross the no man’s land. Shots were flying all around them, accompanied by occasional explosions. They returned fire at any opportunity they got, which was whenever a soldier peeked out of the trench a bit too much.

“Machinegun!” Friedrich yelled out. They threw themselves on the ground, just barely in time to avoid getting mowed down by a rain of plasma. One of the shots managed to graze Hanse’s helmet.

After roughly a minute of running they got to the trench and jumped in. Before the enemies could react, Gunter and Friedrich shot two of them, while Hans bayonetted a third one. Another one tried to jump in, but fell right on Gunter’s bayonette. Hans and Friedrich checked if the neighboring trench needed clearing.

“It’s clear, we can advance.” Friedrich said.

As they were climbing the opposite wall of the trench, Gunter felt something pierce into his left ankle, followed by a burning pain, like somebody put a torch there. He screamed in agony and looked down to see a half-dead soldier laying on the ground, holding a knife stabbed into his ankle. Gunter shot the soldier in the head, killing them. Soon the pain was too much and he collapsed to the ground. He pulled out the knife and the pain lessened. The wound itself was black, surrounded by patterns of brown-gray and red.

Friedrich and Hans helped him get out of the trench and let him lay down on a nearby surviving wall fragment. Gunter didn’t even try to stand up, he knew he wouldn’t be able to.

“Where is Anna when you need her?” Hans muttered under his breath, but everyone heard him. They could tell he was nervous. The wound wasn’t lethal by any margin, but it made his brother an easy target.

Then they saw two Stormtroopers approaching.

[Detroix]

“Oh my god, what happened?!” Anna cried out, as she and Karl approached the rest of their squad.

“Gunter got stabbed in the leg. We were hoping you’d show up soon to take care of it.” Friedrich explained, in a much calmer tone than she expected.

“Oh, right. I’ll get to it.” As Anna had background in medicine, she was assigned as the the squads medic.

While Anna and Hans were treating Gunter, Karl and Friedrich and Karl stepped away to talk.

“So, how did Anna do?” Friedrich asked.

“Well, she lagged behimd and than almost died because she decided to spare some red’s life.” Karl said.

“She still has a problem with that? It’s one day going to cost her her life. If not the enemy, than the command for desersion.”

Menwhile Hans and Anna removed Gunter’s armor plate that covered the wound. She gave him painkillers and covered the wound to prevent infections. The burnt area was much larger than in case of gunshot wounds, so regenerative stimulants would be useless.

Hans helped Gunter stand up. As the pain was now gone, he in theory should be able to walk.

“How does it feel?” Hans asked.

“Good. It isn’t my first time, you should know that.” Gunter replied.

“Alright, lets get moving. We are lagging behind.” Friedrich commanded.

“We don’t want to miss all the action, do we?” Karl said while already getting over the piles of rubble that used to be the wall.

[Detroix]

The group reached the nearest opening in the wall. There was already an intense firefight happening, but it seemed like Stormtroopers were winning. Before they reached the group awaiting their turn to fight, a breakthrough was achieved and Stormtroopers poured inside the base.

“We’ve got a breakthrough! Move in, move in!” The Captain yelled over the sound of gunfire.

Inside, Stormtroopers were already either rounding up prisoners or scouting out the damaged buildings and alleyways. Gunfire rang from all directions, but our squad couldn’t see any enemy soldiers.

“Hey, Sargeant, whats your name?” It was their Lieutenant, approaching with a few more squads of Stormtroopers.

“Friedrich, sir.”

"Alright, you are coming with us. We are storming the spaceport. "

“Yes sir.”

So they moved out, marching accross what seemed to be the main street. They were constantly on edge, expecting fire to come out of any street or window at any moment.

Then they heard gunfire from one of the streets they passed by and saw a group of Stormtroopers getting decimated by a large mech, painted full red. It was at least 5 meters tall, armed with a twin minigun and a rocket launcher. These mechs were the bane of League’s forces, being countered only by tanks. Theoretically RPGs and other anti-tank weapons could damage it, but it would require an entire fireteam and even then victory wasn’t guaranteed.

“Into the bulding!” The Lieutenant commanded. Hopefully the mech wouldn’t notice them.

[Detroix]

The platoon of around 30 Stormtroopers hid inside a warehouse. It was mostly empty, aside from a few piles of rubble and a big hole in the roof. Probably got hit by airstrikes, but with the Reds you never know for sure.

The big machine was now walking past the building, seemingly unaware of their presence. It was over 5 meters tall and completely covered in thick, red armor. Or rather almost completely, as Karl noticed, during some movements the shoulder joints were exposed.

This was the oportunity he was was waiting for. He could already imagine it. An infantryman that took down a mech. A medal, maybe an article or a viral video and a good story to tell Commando recruiters. He aimed his gun and before Friedrich could very quietly yell out “Karl!” he fired.

The grenade narrowly squeezed through tye armor plates and hit the exposed joint and detonated, tearing off the entire arm. Obviously, their hiding spot was now revealed.

The miniguns on the left arm started spinning and unleashed a hailstorm of plasma on the werehouse, ripping holes in the walls. The platoon was forced to retreat behind various piles of ruble and abandoned machinery.

“Karl, you fucking idiot! What were you even thinking?! Were you even thinking at all?!” Friedrich yelled out over the rattle of miniguns and Lieutenant’s efforts to organize the platoon.

Karl tried to formulate a response, but the more he tried he couldn’t. Maybe he really wasn’t thinking. Anyways, they were all going to die now and it was his fault.

“You know, I’m starting to understand why they didn’t let you into the Commandos.” Hans said. “You could have at least yelled out something iconic when making that shot. People would at least remember us after our deaths.”

While the rest of the squad was busy scolding Karl and dealing with Anna’s panic attack, Gunter was looking for a way out. The moment they tried to move they would be immediatly mowed down, like those unfortunate ones who didn’t get behind cover. None of their weapons could pierce the thick armor. They would need a proper rocket launcher or a tank. Hitting the joint was already a one in a million when they were hidded. And then he got an idea.

“Sir, I might have an idea!” He shouted to the Lieutenant, hoping to get his attention.

“Well, what are you waiting for trooper? Speak up.”

“If we could lure the mech inside, we might be able to collapse the building on it. I don’t know how much damage it will do, but it’s the best chance we’ve got. Sir.”

“That’s the best idea I’ve heard in the past two minutes. Lets get to it.”

[Detroix]

“Hans, throw a thermal in there!” Gunter yelled. Thermal grenades were designed to take out vehicles and fortified positions. However, due to their power using them was often dangerous without proper cover abd significant distance. Still, every soldier was given one as a last resort.

Hans threw his in the middle of the warehouse and immediatly ducked to the floor for cover. A small metal ball rolled towards the wall where the mech was. And a giantic explosion followed, ripping a hole in the wall, collapsing a part of the roof, making a hole in the floor a hurling molten metal everywhere. The warehouse definately wasn’t military grade. The smoke, heat and bits of molten metal confused both the mech pilot and the mech’s sensors.

All of the Stormtroopers rushed outside only to see the mech come out of the smoke. It was almost undamaged, except for a couple spots of missing paint. Some soldiers threw more grenades with longer fuses and the platoon ran away into an alleyway. Another, even bigger explosion shook the ground and, after the smoke settled, they came back onto the street. All that remained were molten and charred ruins, with random mech parts sticking out here and there.

They all let out a sigh of relief, some falling onto the ground out of the exhaustion or speaking in disbelief. But after a minute they all fell silent and looked at Karl.

“What’s your name, private?” Said the Lieutenant in a harsh voice.

“K-Karl sir.”

“What you did was extremely stupid and reckless. As a result of your actions five troopers are now dead. The entire platoon was in serious danger. If I was one of the Reds, I’d say this was a good trade off. Five soldiers for mech. But I’m not. I care for the lives of my soldiers, not to even mension that we now might not make it in time to assist the assault on the space port. Private Karl, you will be courtmartialed.”