Situation Foxtrot (SAO/Foxhole) [COMPLETE]

"Alright people," you snapped, looking over the hastily-assembled round table of your officers you'd dragged together in Kirknell. Everyone was here, bottom to top, along with seconds in command and staff members. "Listen up. Normally, I'd be taking another few weeks to get us a position in Callahan's Passage in order to reinforce the front and prevent a critical log jam. Normally we wouldn't have info that the enemy's started pouring concrete. This is gonna push up our time schedule. Does anyone have any preparations they need to make outside moving personnel and gear to the jump-off point?"

Tepes, Col. de 163e Motor Rifles, looked at you carefully. "I have a lot of equipment still cooking in the Howl County MPF. I'll need two days for it to finish cooking."

"Can you make thirty six hours work?"

Tepes looked at his lieutenant, who looked through their binders and checked a pocketwatch. "Forty hours, sir."

"No," Tepes replied, frowning. "We still have to re-barrack too."

"Fuck," you muttered. "Theresa, Colonel Azevado, can you work with Tepes to get his stuff moved into the jump-off point?"

Azevado, Col. de 13e Transhipment, nodded at me. "Yes. We can handle it, don't worry."

"Then handle it. Any other issues?"

Asuna raised her hand carefully. "Yes. I need to get in touch with Argo- the units she sent to backstop our siege lines in Weathered Expanse are completely useless. They're untrained, mostly layabouts, and their logistics presence is horrible."

"Call her if you can, but odds are decent we've got what she can get us. Just make sure we're well supplied with B-supps, and we'll worry about the rest when we get there."

"Alright…"

With Asuna finished, Zairman stepped up. "Do you know if I can leave my spare vehicles in Kirknell? We have a small excess of Devitts."

"Yeah, go ahead. We've got the actual Fort Viper ceded to us since nobody wants it," you explained, "so as long as I station a team from the 72e to manage it, your tanks should be safe."

"Good to hear, thank you."

A moment of silence. "Everyone good?" you asked, to a chorus of nodding. "Very well, then. Officers, you're dismissed for the next seventy-two hours, at which point we'll have a pre-operational meeting at the jump-off point."

///

Three days later at the jump-off point, you breathed in deeply. The last meeting had gone over with barely a formality: everyone was ready, and now the only thing left to do was take a nap before things kicked off. Making way to your personal bunker- rank hath its privileges- you caught sight of Loup by your door.

"Hey," you said softly, looking at her. "Something up?"

"Yeah," she said, working her hands together as the cool fall breeze stirred her skirts. "I'm nervous about tomorrow."

"Need to talk, then?"

"No, just time away from my girls. They're worrying, which is worrying me, which is contagious since then I do things and that worries them and it's all just adjusting the deck chairs on the Titantic-"

Cutting her off with a hug, you just pulled her in. "C'mon. You can stay the night with me, alright? Not like you're driving a truck here."

"Right. Right."

Changing into your pajamas quickly, you helped Loup change too, before pulling her into the titanic-feeling double bed with you. Wrapping an arm around her, you just felt her snuggle into your big spoon.

"I'll never get how you're so comfortable doing this," Loup muttered. "I hate fighting. I hate it."

"That's okay," you mutter.

"Is it? Really?"

"Yes," you muttered again, sighing a little. "Loup, I'm tired. I can't explain it. Doesn't matter what you do, as long as you help people fighting to get out. That's all I need."

"...okay. Good night, Melanie."

"Night, Loup…"

Unfortunately for you, four AM and your mechanical alarm clock going off came all too soon. Liberating yourself from Loup's grasp, you got dressed quickly in a simple field uniform. It was nice, though, since someone had scrounged up a Cascadier for you instead of letting you stick with an Ahti or a revolver. Once that was holstered and your dirk correctly placed, you bound up your short blonde hair and strapped the old Warden helmet on tight.

Then you got up to your desk, where someone had left you a note.

Orr.

Please wear your officer's uniform today, there's a lot of people who don't know who you are and can't read the rank insignia. We don't need to have to respawn you because some dipshit ran you over with a logi truck.

Tymur

Great. Sighing, you put dirk and gun on the desk, before getting into your officer's uniform. Once the kepi was set on straight, you rearmed yourself with gun and sword, before heading out to the command center: a trio of 2x3 bunkers set up with as much comms and tracking equipment as possible, with a Observation Bunker trying to keep track of everything. Walking in, someone frantically rose to salute. "General on deck!"

"Settle down!" you snapped back, firing off a quick salute to get him to drop. "We've got shit to do, kids, and not a lot of time to do it in! Long range comms, what's our status on getting long-range scan data?"

"Weathered Expanse will fire intel scan on your orders, Ma'am!"

"Good! I want them to light up the relic bases, make sure they don't have anything stowed in there. Any word from the Commandos?"

"Commandos report enemy armor presence, and some scattered truck patrols ma'am! Communications are spotty, though, and they're not reporting in often!"

Great. "Alright people, stick to the plan!" you said. "Traffic team, I want the artillery rolling out first. Short range comms, get me Colonel Asuna, time to talk turkey."

A runner brought you a phone handset, and you took it with a nod. "Asuna, come in."

"Hey, Orr," your friend said. "We're first in?"

"Yeah. Forties first, get in and get the border base set up and I'll have the 62e right behind you."

"Gotcha. We're going in- see you when we get the border base up."

"Good luck, see you soon."

With that, you sent Asuna off, before signaling the traffic teams to get the 62e on deck to follow on. 3/62e was going in next, the third battalion being both the newest of Kazoo's men and more importantly the ones without the headquarters detachment or the ones with the highest level of mechanization. Instead, according to him, they had a secret weapon: most were native English speakers, since they were largely Canadians.

It wasn't long before the 3/62e was over the border- and that's about when the nerves set it.

The first hour was acceptably quiet.

The second hour was painstaking.

The third hour was what broke you, as dawning light was beginning to creep up over the horizon. "Long range comms, what's our status on further supplies-"

"Ma'am! Contact from Kirknell, the border base is up! Message coming through!"

"Well don't just stand there, read it out!"

Gulping, the radioman nodded. "From: Col. Asuna. To: Gen. Orr. Fighting intense, stop. Require additional guns, stop. Casualties severe, but recovered, need shirts ASAP, stop. Enemy has large armored force, stop."

"Right, then," you said, taking a second to breathe. "Traffic warden; I want the 2/64e ready to roll, with 1/62e right behind them. Supplies management, convoy up a shirts 'n shit run and get that batched. Short-range comms, get the port on the line and start shuffling containers. Long-range comms, confirm with Kirknell that the bunker base is online, I want status reports every quarter hour. Logistics desk, what's our transport uptime look like?"

"Trucks are ready to roll on your mark, ma'am."

"Make it so."

As the first units of the 62e and 64e started leaving your base, you breathed deeply. This whole 'not knowing' thing felt like someone was stabbing you right in the kidneys. "Logistics desk, what do we have for spare 40mm push-guns?"

"We've got six spare, ma'am."

"Get them hitched up on shell trucks, and once long-range comms confirms with the border base that we can start a forward stockpile I want them moved up."

"Aye, ma'am."

Time passed, and you sighed deeply. Presumably, Asuna could handle things for now- it was four hours in, and Zairman wasn't scheduled to hit the ground running for another four. Grabbing a cup of coffee and a sandwich, you took both down quickly and efficiently, before scrounging around in your pockets for a pack of cigarettes. Lighting up, you watched and waited.

"Ma'am, report from the border base off schedule," Long-range comms said. "Relic Base: Sanctum is destroyed."

"Very good. Any other news?"

"Colonel Asuna is requesting engineering assets and as many B-mats as possible."

"Make it so. Traffic wardens, what do we have on tap?"

"Five CVs, three cranes."

"Send two of each, make sure 163e keeps a close escort on them."

"Wilco!"

Blinking, you noticed your cigarette had run out. Well, that wasn't very good- especially since it was time to roll the next units out the door. "Traffic warden, queue up the 1/64e and 3/64e, then the remaining elements of the 62e. Long range comms, query the border base: can we advance the brigade flag up yet, or set up a stockpile there?"

A few minutes later, you got your reply. "Negative as to supplies, but Colonel Zairman affirms you're good to move up if you use a command tank. The enemy has an estimated two batteries of 120mm guns in theatre they're flying around to try and disrupt staging areas, so you need to stay buttoned up, ma'am."

"Logistics, do we have a King Spire in inventory?"

"No-" Logistics called back, before stopping. "Wait, we have three, under the 64e's tab, marked down for- er- I can't read this, ma'am."

Walking over, you chuckled as you read the note. "It reads 'for the General when she's feeling frisky," you said. "Zairman came prepared. Someone round me up a tank driver and an escort from the 163e. I'm heading in to check on the front."

"Will do, ma'am!"

///

You couldn't remember the names of the your driver and gunner to save your life, but this didn't really matter since they both responded to their job titles. Was this what being in a cheap JRPG was like? Faceless mooks responding to "Driver, forward!" and "Gunner, load up!" like they were faceless extensions of your will?

Bah- it didn't matter. The minute you crossed the hex border, your radio lit up like a flashlight, all channels going off loud and proud. Flipping through things, you breathed in and out through the chaos, sorting everything into its proper places.

Channel one was the simplest- it was the rocket artillery and 120mm guns talking to each other, going over assigned targets and picking out who'd be servicing them. Nice, sane, and unlikely to cause any major accidents. Channel two was the 40mm guns and mortars, grouped together for the same reason even if the latter were quickly being surpassed unless they found an old ditch to hide in. Those enemy 120mm guns were sharp, apparently: likely part of the Oleander Light Guard, then. To hear them talk about it, they'd been successfully counterbatteried twice- and with the front lines moving fast as hell, it was hard to get picked back up and hauled back to the border base to reconstitute.

Channel three and four, meanwhile, were the armor channels. Short bursts of comms chatter, then silence as the tanks danced their devilish waltzes, guns ablaze in the early morning sun.

"Look sharp, everyone," Zairman warned, his voice sounding out clear and cold in the radio's hum. "They're not going to be shooting into the sun forever- move fast, rotate back if you get hit. We've got the General coming up too: I want that fort broken by the time she gets here!"

A lot of screaming followed that, and you switched over to channel 5; logistics. Instead of enthusiastic screaming, instead it was pained screaming: everyone needed B-mats, now, and the medical supplies weren't matching up to the number of casualties being received. Channels six, seven, and eight weren't much better: those were regimental supply/headquarters nets, and Asuna had turned your mobile spotter concept on its head by attaching them everywhere to channel information back to her in order to direct the flow of battle through superior fire direction.

Finally, channel ten was almost blissfully empty: that was the QRF channel. You left it there for a brief minute, before doing the smart thing and going back to each regimental tac-net, and saying you were on air. That done, you finally, finally got confirmation from Zairman that the relic was clear- he had a platoon of tanks sitting there getting repaired, even. With both the sent CVs pounding away at re-raising the Relic, you popped the top on your tank and looked around.

Man. Marban seemed… gray. That said, it didn't take long for your driver to find the other King Spire out here, and link up with them. As Zairman popped the top, you grinned at him. "Going well?" you called out.

"Amazing! These enemy Mass Production Tanks, they're full of forty-mil! We don't need to send back for ammunition!"

"Great! What about B-mats?"

"Kind of fucked for those! If there's not more in the bunker base, we'll really need the 241 to get some-"

One moment, you were listening to Zairman, the next you were sitting in the Waiting Room of the Damned. What? You were dead? What killed you? Did something blow up your tank? No, Driver and Gunner weren't with you. Did you get sniped? Did someone seriously dedicate a sniper team to whack you?

Judging by the fact you could see Loup, Zairman, and you think Asuna in the distance? Yes, yes they did. You'd feel proud- especially as for the fact you got revived about five minutes later. Coming back into your body at the bunker base on a cot next to Zairman, you groaned and sat up. "What the fuck?" you groaned. "They sniped me!"

"Yeah, they sniped fucking everyone," Zairman groaned. "They got me, all my battalion leaders, and some of my company commanders too."

"Well that's some bullshit," I groused. "You, builder, how long were we out?"

"Five minutes, ma'am. Also, Colonel Zairman? You might want to get on a radio, now. In lieu of orders, your troops have decided to press the advance, damn the fuel economy."

"Oh for heaven's sakes," Zairman said, holding his head in his hands. "Those idiots. Those absolute idiots."

"If it's any consolation," you said, "I didn't see Kazoo, so he probably had continuity of command. Speaking of which…"

Going over to the door and putting your hat on the end of your sabre, you dangled it forward. No bullets creased it, so you jammed it on and walked out to hop out to your tank- firmly shutting the hatch as you dug down in the turret!

"Colonel Kazoo, this is General Orr. Come in."

"Ah, hey boss," Kazoo said, coughing lightly. "How are you doing?"

"There's an outbreak of snipers. You got hit yet?"

"Me? No, not yet-" my infantry colonel replied, before cutting off to a great wet hacking cough. "-fucking Canadians, sorry, what was that?"

"I didn't ask anything, don't worry."

"Good, because uh- advance warning, here- if it looks vaguely fortified here, wear a gas mask. Fuckers were coating everything in Green Ash, I'm pretty sure everything south of the crossroads is toxic."

"Is it slowing things down?"

"Eh, not by much, but I've only got two Encampments up for respawns, and we're starting to pinch. I'm going to wait and reconstitute before the next big leap."

"How far in are you?"

"We're in Spitrocks, holding position outside of attack range on Fort Doodle. The wreck of Fort Charlie is making it hard to build around here, though, and there's a slot in the Bleating Plateau we're getting leakers from. Can you free anything up to handle that?"

"Not at present moment, let me talk to our QRF element and artillery."

Sighing, you got the channel changed over to the 15e's, and started talking fast. "General Orr to Colonel Asuna, come in Asuna."

"General Orr, this is Major Silica. We're still reviving Colonel Asuna," Silica said, sounding like she was holding her hat in her hands.

"Damn it, Silica, what happened?"

"We're at the Outpost by, uh, Pilgrimage Crossing? Yeah, we had a lone gunboat come up and shell that out just after Asuna respawned. We sank it though!"

"Very good, Silica. Are you in command?"

"I shouldn't be, but uh, yeah. It's not looking too good over here, the girls from the 241e are panicking and it's not pretty."

Ah hell, that was the 64e's supply unit- but the 64e was in good supply- but they were running low on fuel due to their lack of coordination- but- but-

Putting the radio down for a second, you screamed your rage out into the cold and unfeeling internals of the King Spire. Once it was back in your hands, though, it was time for business.

"Alright. Silica, get the 241e back in working order- hook or crook, I don't care how. I'll tell all the batteries of the 15e to attach to local formations, which they're probably doing already. Once we get this mess sorted, it'll be back to pushing, okay?"

"Got it. Over and out, Orr."

"Over and out."

From there, you had a lot of calls to make, and it'd be better to do it in the Relic base. Climbing out of your tank again, you just got your boots on the back deck when suddenly you were falling, falling- and bam, right back in the Waiting Room of the Damned.

Fucking snipers.

Once again, you were revived inside ten minutes, and you got straight to the radio and off to work. People were introduced, language barriers were jumped through painfully, and the 9e started picking up slack as the 241e were slowly, painfully, reconstituted. Worse was patching the 15e back together, though- your old regiment had shattered, latched on to the nearest unit, and then proceed to merrily go a-killing because what else were they supposed to do?

You know what? You could let Asuna handle that. Asuna was the colonel now, she could do colonel-y things like that. As for the rest, though-

Well, as you turned to look at the paper map, you stared at where the wooden markers indicating the 62e were. "Did they advance into Fort Doodle?" you asked your new aide quietly.

"Yes. Also, the 120s moved up, and are shelling Spitrocks as the wind allows, apparently," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "The 163rd had to put some units on helping to glue the Bleating Plateau shut, but that should be temporary? I think?"

"Great. And has anyone started handling the snipers?"

"26th Commandos claim to be working on it."

"Great, good," you groaned. "Mission complete. Fuck."

At about that point, you got a call from the other new aide who'd stuck around the Relic. "Ma'am, Intel center calling in through the telegraph. Looks like a whole-ass convoy just landed in Maiden's Veil."

"Fucking christ," you muttered. "It's gonna be one of those days, and it's only just turned fifteen hundred in the afternoon."

"Amen to that, boss."

Obviously, there was an attack inbound on you. The issue was fending it off. Currently, you had three major areas of vulnerability: the North and West exits to the Bleating Plateau, and the Spitrocks Gap north of Mt. Mac Tire. While you could hold all of them, your artillery would be limited to only cover one of them: the question was which. Likewise, you also had to get your supply situation sorted: without B-mats, your people couldn't dig in for shit. Or, you could 'defend aggressively', reconstitute your units, and kick the Hornet Line in the teeth. This would answer any questions you'd have about force concentration, but you couldn't promise that it would result in you getting encircled through the mountain valleys. Or, hell, only defend partially aggressively, and just knock over Fort Ernie to tighten up your lines around Spitrocks, or-

-fuck. Analysis Paralysis. You were in a very easy position to get it, so you needed to focus on fighting it, then making good, enforceable decisions.

"You, what's your name?" you asked, pointing at Aide 1.

"Jorm, ma'am."

"Sergeant Jorm, good. Get on the horn with the 72e, I need to know what and when Argo's reinforcements are supposed to arrive."

The answer was soon in coming: tomorrow morning, with arrival in your jump-off point of eight hundred hours. Good. That just meant you needed to hold for, oh, fifteen hours more. No pressure.

////


Unit Status

Allied
15e Flying Artillery: High enthusiasm, but central leadership and more detailed figures currently unavailable. Units are in Good supply and enmeshed with other units.
62e Grenadiers: Medium enthusiasm, starting to fatigue. 1e Battalion is in Good supply, 2e and 3e Battalion are in Fair supply. Vehicle casualties are Low and manpower is respawning steadily.
64e Armored Cavalry: High enthusiasm, not yet fatigued. All units are in Fair supply, but are Low in Fuel. Vehicle casualties are Low, but tank armor levels are only Fair: dedicated anti-tank weapons will start producing mission kills and total losses.
163e Motor Rifles: Medium enthusiasm, units are in Excellent supply, but lacking in heavy weapons. Units are not committed.
26e Commandos: High enthusiasm, units are in Good supply and engaging enemy commando teams in the mountains.

Enemy
Oleander Light Guard: Low presence suspected: enemy fortification units did not show additional sophistication observed in combats in Allsight. Artillery units tied to the regiment have been spotted and engaged.
Nomarch's Own Armored: One battalion of 85K-b Falchion tanks destroyed, plus some headquarters elements. Forces showed good initiative and vehicle handling, but poor unit training.
Unknown Commandos: Highly effective at assassinating officers, but as-of-yet unable to destroy materiel stockpiles.
Unknown Convoy Unit: Unknown, scans suggest Fair levels of mechanization of unknown type.
Unknown Unit: Unknown, scans suggest a unit with a Poor level of mechanization supporting the Hornet Line in addition to the Oleander Light Guard.


///

VOTES

Choose up to Four votes. One must be from each category. This vote will note be counted by plan.

Supply
[][Supply] Sort out the 241e's collective mess, and fast. You need your armor regiment working without issues or else.
[][Supply] You're getting kneecapped by a lack of engineering assets. Cludge together some extra CVs and Cranes at Sanctum, and drive them out to where they're needed.
[][Supply] B-mat Starvation is going to break your armor and your artillery units. Get more in right now, and start flinging them at issues.
[][Supply] Build a central warehouse and control point so you can start to exercise some actual command and control here, as well as keep your artillery from having to pull supplies all the way from the jump-off point.

Assault
[][Assault] Don't assault. You have enough clay right now.
[][Assault] Assault up the Bleating Plateau, to reduce the number of choke points you need to hold.
[][Assault] Assault into The Spitrocks and take the Relic Base, securing a large swath of frontage and collecting Colonial salvage.
[][Assault] Assault the Hornet Line, to make sure the enemy can't pull a sneaky on you in this mountain maze.

Entrenchment
[][Entrenching] Minimum entrenchments. You need to stay mobile, and holes in the ground are an invitation to get shot by artillery.
[][Entrenching] Moderate entrenchments. These will include some bunker patterns, mostly to try and shore up the thousand odd defensive angles that make up this hex.
[][Entrenching] Heavy entrenchments. Your vehicle park is precious here, and you need to protect it by making ablative B-mat structures take the heat instead of more important tanks and artillery pieces.
[][Entrenching] Full Bunker Base Construction. Fuck everything with a rake, they're prying you out of here with a full siege artillery regiment or nothing at all. Build up hard and permanent.