Chapter 125: It's Not A War Crime If They Shoot First
Trunko
Dissatisfied writer
- Location
- Milan, Italy
Chapter 125: It's Not A War Crime If They Shoot First
"So... This is the town of Arene?" I asked, looking through my binoculars.
"Positive." confirmed Tragen to my right. "As you can see, the rebels have been very meticulous."
"Too right." I replied, turning to him, before going back to observing the destruction and carnage below. "It's almost like they don't care that it's their city they're destroying. I guess, in their eyes it's worth to level their own city as long as it hurts the Empire."
"That's the Republican way of thinking, sir. Honor and vengeance before reason."
"Indeed. Status of the teams?"
"They're in position, sir."
"Good. Tell the first, second, and fourth companies to proceed. The third and fifth companies are to remain on the flanks, to counter enemy attempts to flank us."
"Flanking, sir?"
"Don't forget we're about to fight in a urban area, Tragen. Densely populated, and every building could hide snipers, machine guns or entire squads of fighters. They could engage and bleed an entire army dry. That's what happened at Stalingrad."
"What happened at... Where, sir?"
For a moment, I made to answer, but then I realized it was futile. Stalingrad, and the terrible monstrous battle connected with that name, had taken place in a very different Earth than the one I was in now. Probably, the city in question in this world did not exist, or, if it did, it had a completely different name. And I didn't know enough about Federation History to say whether that was true or false.
While this was heartening on the one hand, it also caused me a slight shiver of dread: in all likelihood, no large-scale battles had yet been fought within a city. No one probably knew yet the deadly combination of sharpshooters and ruined buildings, no one yet realized the terrible number of lives that would be required to conquer and pacify a city in open revolt.
Would we be the first?
"Sir?" asked Tragen drawing my attention again. "The Battalion is ready to advance. However, why can't we wait until the other units have completed their deployment around the city?"
"Because it's not just pro-Republican rebels in these ruins;" I said, putting the binoculars back in place. "The Imperial garrison, and the police units that failed to evacuate in time... if the rebels haven't already executed them, they're likely to keep them in a prison camp inside the city. It is our task to locate such a camp, free the prisoners, and lead them to safety before the other troops are ready to give the attack."
"Absolutely, sir, and I apologize for not thinking of that. I hope with all my heart that our captured comrades are well."
"Rest assured, Tragen. International laws and conventions sanction the safety of captured prisoners. What do you think, that just because they are disorganized civilians they execute their prisoners?"
As Tragen and I, followed by the rest of the 205th Magic Battalion, flew over the ruined city of Arene, a strange smell reached my nostrils. It smelled like gunpowder, rot, explosives, blood, death, and the beginnings of decomposition. I had smelled it before, when I was on the Rhine front, but here... it almost seemed like the smell was concentrated.
"Look at all these ruins..." said one of the more inexperienced mages behind me. "They're gonna pay for ruining this city."
"It's still their city." I said, promptly shushing him. "If they care so much about destroying their homes and shelters, too bad for them. The important thing is that they don't get their hands on-"
Suddenly, the sound of an explosion shook the air, and several of the mages behind me promptly put their hands to their weapons. Immediately, I put my hand to the communicator.
"This is Major Frederick to recon team. What was that bang?"
"This is recon team. The rebels have just blown up a large rail bridge over the river, one of those used by our troops to supply the Rhine front."
Damn! I thought angrily. If the rebels succeeded in blowing up the river railroad bridges that were already in their hands, even if we were able to recapture the city within a few days we would not be able to get the flow of supplies to resume quickly enough. Without enough supplies to support our troops, the Rhine front would be weakened and thus would be at the mercy of the Republican army. At best, we would have to halt all ongoing offensives to save material and make strategic retreats along the front to more defensible lines: at worst... the entire Rhine front would have to retreat eastward, with serious and irreparable consequences for both the Imperial war industry and army and civilian morale.
"Let's go!" I finally exclaimed, as soon as I got my anger under control. "If we're lucky, the rebels are too busy blowing up bridges to realize we're almost on them!"
We advanced slowly through the ruined city, alert to any noise that might alert us to the presence of rebels nearby. Every time I turned my gaze on a ruined building, it seemed to me that there were Republican rebels hiding behind walls, Republican rebels lurking in the rubble of houses, Republican rebels watching us from behind the cracks in the walls. Of course it was mostly my own paranoia, but what would have happened if it wasn't?
We were now standing in what must have once been a small square, with a half-destroyed and dilapidated fountain from which a trickle of water still flowed. All around, several council houses, once inhabited by families and children, now empty. The kingdom of death.
And to add meaning to those words, on the road lay the remains of numerous dead. Some were imperial soldiers, but many were civilians, even children.
"There was a battle here, sir." Tragen said as he approached one of the corpses. "The blood has congealed by now, so it wasn't too recent, but recent enough that the corpses weren't yet beginning to decompose."
Silently, I descended the height, approaching one of the corpses in turn. It was the body of a wispy child with several bruises on his body, dressed like a ragamuffin. He wasn't armed in the true sense of the word, but he still had a stone in one of his hands. Had he also been a rebel against Imperial rule? Probably.
"Alright" I said, turning my attention away from the corpse. "Men, be careful: we are not acting here against a well organized and equipped enemy army, but against a popular insurrection. The enemy is well armed, but seems to have no compunction about putting women and children in the front line. Therefore..."
At that moment, a noise attracted my attention, so I suddenly turned around.
A few more seconds, then a man emerged from a side alley. His uniform made me realize that he was a soldier of the Imperial Army.
When the man saw me, and the rest of the Battalion behind me, he suddenly stopped running and almost fell to his knees. I could see blood splatter on his face.
"Help!" Made the man turn to me. "Help me. They-"
"Death! Death to the imperial pigs!" came another voice, coming from the alleyway before. Immediately, the man took cover behind the ruins of the fountain, preparing to flee again.
A few more moments, and I finally understood why he was fleeing.
An dozen armed citizens emerged from the alley. Mostly men, but there were also many women and several children and teens. Almost all of them were carrying rifles, pistols, blades and other weapons. From the looks I could see in their eyes, they seemed eager to lynch and slit someone's throat.
The moment their eyes met mine, they suddenly stopped, as more armed rebel civilians crowded behind them. There were at least three hundred civilians, maybe more.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" I said, putting on my most cocky smile ever in clear view. "Rebel, huh? Didn't you hear that Revolution hour is over?"
"You Imperial bastard!" said a boy between the ages of ten and eleven, glaring at me. He had a gun in his hand, but unless the bullets had been enhanced to pierce my magic shield, I had nothing to worry about.
"My name, you cocky little brat, is König. Major Frederick König, of the Imperial Army's Aerial Mage Corps."
"König?"
"No way, that's the Dragon?"
"If he's here, the other one, the Devil of the Rhine, can't be far behind."
"What... the Devil... She's here?!"
"Why, yes!" I said, bluffing. "Major Degurechaff is actually en route for this position. We were sent together in order to quell your little... uprising."
"This is our city, you Imperial bastards!" yelled a woman in her early thirties, waving her gun.
"Correction: this was your city. It ceased to be so when you declared war on the Empire, and our troops were forced to occupy it. Nothing obligated you to go to war against us, yet you did so without any consideration of the balance of power between you and us. Not very clever or wise."
"Shut up! Shut up!" yelled the woman from before, pointing her gun at me and firing. Within moments, a few other rebels in the group joined the improvised fire.
I stood still, silent, watching in amusement as the enemy bullets ricocheted off my shield. Behind me, some mages from the 205th battalion prepared to intervene, but they were held back by the more veteran soldiers, who knew what to do.
The enemy fire lasted little more than a minute, just long enough for the enemy magazines to empty.
"Damn!" yelled the woman, realizing she had run out of bullets. "Damn! Damn you!"
"Ah-ah-ah!" said I, raising my finger as I saw what she was about to do. "You really think pulling an empty gun on me will do any good? Stop acting moved by your anger, and try to use your brain for once, without falling into the most stereotypical clichés. Half a dozen bullets of your own, to which I must add the bullets, stones and empty bottles of your friends didn't even manage to give me a scratch, now you think that pulling the empty gun on me will have a better chance of success?"
The woman paused, as the rebels' attention focused on her. For a moment, she seemed genuinely unsure of what to do.
"Seriously. Do you really think pulling an empty gun on a veteran." I made sure to punctuate. "Imperial." Every. "Army." Word. "Mage... Is going to give you a chance? Its common and public knowledge that in order to kill a mage you have to be a mage yourself, have an actual artillery piece or a magically enhanced weapon at your disposal. You are armed only with pistols, common rifles, bottles, rocks, and your fists. Stop for a moment and think about what you want to do. Think-"
A hard, black-colored object, obviously the gun the chick wanted to throw at me, smashed uselessly against my shield.
"Damn you!"
"See? This is what I'm talking about. You're not even thinking." I said, resting my hand on my forehead, almost as if not to see such a display of stupidity "Maybe it's true that you Republicans are so blinded by your hatred that you can no longer think rationally."
"There are too many of us for you to kill us all. You can't win a popular rebellion of all classes!" made the child from before, shaking his useless fists at me.
"Who said we have to kill you all?" replied I, with an evil smile on my lips. "We didn't come here to kill you all, we came to convince you to surrender!"
"That's not going to happen!" said a man with a beard, in his fifties, and a worker's hat on his head "We'd rather die than surrender! You will not pass! We-"
It was then that I became aware of something that was happening at the back of the crowd. Some of the Republican rebels did not seem very eager to fight us; in fact, they were slowly pulling away from the rest of the group.
"Savarin!" said the man, realizing what was happening. "Where in God's name are you going?"
"I… I am sorry Blaise." One of the retreating rebels said, stopping for a second. "I know that I have promised to help you fight the Imperials, and we did; I know that it was looking like we were winning, but… I cannot do this. I cannot fight the Imperial Dragon for you. I have a daughter, remember? And I promised her that I would return to her alive today. If we fight the Imperial Dragon..." he pointed at me. "We'll be slaughtered. Do you know what he's capable off?"
"You cannot quit!" Blaise replied, unbelieving that he was losing some men of his mob. "This is not some petty revolt. This is a national effort to push the Imperials outside our city and help the Republic win!"
"Help the Republic win?" I said, almost laughing. "That's what you're putting your necks out for? You want to leave your wives widowed and your children orphaned so that the Republican government will have an easier time fighting the Empire? You want to die for them? What has the Republican government ever done for you, since this revolt started?"
I pointed with my finger at the sky, where right now, only Tragen and the rest of the 205th Mage Battalion were clear and visible.
"Where are the Republican mages? Where are the reinforcements that the Republican government sent to help you in your revolt? Where are the soldiers destined to aid you? They are not here. There are no Republican soldiers or mages in the area, because the Republican government is quite happy to see you sent to slaughter if it will further their dirty cause. Your republic is nothing more and nothing less than a government of greedy and lecherous politicians whose only desire is to make money on your skin, your blood and your lives. Willing even to sacrifice you if it will allow them to make a profit!"
"Lies! Don't listen to the lies of the enemy!"
"It's not 'Lies'." I said, looking at the crowd below me, whose ranks were slowly but surely thinning. "It's just the truth. And you are afraid of it, because you know deep in your hearts that it is the truth. And you know well that your rhetoric and nationalism cannot stand up to the truth, just as a small house of wood and straw cannot stand up to the fury of a hurricane."
I was silent for a moment, and looked at the crowd below me. There were still many of them, and those who remained looked at me with hate-filled stares.
"That said, I want to make you a proposal: surrender. Surrender to the Empire's 205th Mage Battalion, and I guarantee that you will receive decent treatment, much more decent than what you would have offered this poor man." I said, pointing to the surviving Imperial soldier. "Your treatment will be contingent upon your cooperation. Obviously. Or... Do you think you have a chance of killing me? I am here. Step forward. I won't even retaliate."
For a few seconds, no one said anything. Then, suddenly...
"Long live the Republic!" shouted the man from before, throwing himself into the attack.
At those words, the courage (or maybe it was madness?) of the rebels was reborn, and they all threw themselves at me. Anyone in my place would have been frightened, as I was only one, and they were many and armed. And I had promised not to use my weapons.
But the soldiers behind me had made no such promise. And they wasted no time in waiting for my signal.
The first row of Republican rebels was practically in front of me when the bullets hit them. Many fell to the ground, others took a few more steps before they realized they were dead. A few seconds, then the battalion mages fired again.
In less than a minute, it was over. All the Republican rebels who had tried to attack me were dead or dying at my feet. The few who had not participated in the attack quickly dispersed through the city streets, perhaps alerting their comrades to the presence of enemy mages in the city. Only one remained.
Silently, I approached the boy from before. He still had a stone in his hand, but he dropped it the moment I stood in front of him.
"You... Imperial scum..."
"And now listen to me, little one." I said, looking him straight in the eye. "With respect to your age, and your guts, I will let you go. But I want you to do something for me..."
"I won't tell you anything!"
"You don't have to tell me anything. I only want you to tell your friends... that Frederick König and Tanya Degurechaff have come to bring this city back into the fold, and they will stop at nothing to achieve this. Tell them what has happened here, and tell them, that if they seek revenge on the captured prisoners, our retaliation will be even more violent. Now go, and don't let me catch you on the battlefield again!"
For a moment, the child hesitated. Then he spat on the ground, and ran away. I would see him again. Maybe. In that case, it would be for the last time.
"Tragen!" I said as soon as the boy had disappeared from my sight. "What's the situation?"
"Pretty fine, sir." he said, immediately at my side. "I believe is a good start, for our reconquest of the city."
"Indeed. And now, I suggest we go to check out our friend…"
