It doesn't take long for the desperation to set in the hearts of the remaining Erusean Expeditionary Force. Despite the impressive pool of manpower the EEF brings, the Belkans still dismantle them at such an astounding pace that transcends contemporary understandings. It's not even a day yet, but the combined Belkan Army and Marine forces have ousted or eliminated thousands of Eruseans and Loyalists alike. In Dunkirk's wartorn urbanscape, the EEF is hemorrhaging valuable fighting power by the seconds, not minutes, not hours. Tired spirit, a clear-cut wartime agreement, and facing an enemy who has an absurd advantage over them... These factors combined have convinced a great many Erusean soldiers to surrender after the initial five hours of combat.
Although they were bolstered by Lord Gort's sentiment and the ingrained Erusean honor of serving the best they could for the Royal Crown, both the Erusean Regulars and Territorials alike thought they contributed enough to warrant a rest from warring for something not theirs to own. The EEF's bleeding wound is exacerbated when frontline officers are being killed left, right, and center. Since Erusean doctrine puts a major emphasis on being subservient to their superiors, many units collapse instantly when their leaders perish in the line of duty. The farther these units are from their command centers, the quicker they give up and surrender to the Belkans. There exist only a few examples where foot soldiers bravely band together for a fight and retreat or a last stand. Yet, for all of their bravery and the needless sacrifices of many, many soldiers, the last bastion of the EEF in Dunkirk is being threatened, a mere push away from being toppled over like many before them.
Lord Gort knows this, and so do his subordinates. This is why compared to other parts of the city, the EEF headquarters is substantially more fortified. Lord Gort's command center is hidden deep beneath a mansion's cellar, with tunnels and pathways hastily dug and connected to many garrisons and fighting positions around the headquarters building, which is itself a well-built manor. The half-submerged trench system and the repurposed basement of the EEF headquarters allow the building to act as a command and logistical hub for the remaining Erusean combatants. It's from the headquarters that orders and munitions are dispatched through the trenches and tunnels to frontline positions somewhat securely and swiftly. From above, Lord Gort's HQ looks like a squid spreading all its tentacles around, using them to feed and manipulate its subordinates. The close proximity the EEF headquarters has with the rest of its defenses also helps, of course, in making sure that everything runs much smoother with little delays in between orders and reinforcements.
Nevertheless, the sheer complexity of this battlefield means that the Belkans themselves are also struggling with identifying just how much of a fighting force Lord Gort actually has, much less the man himself. What both sides can confirm is that, in this urban battlescape, the only thing still standing between the Belkan Marines and Lord Gort is a singular defensive perimeter. The perimeter is a circular ring of city blocks, fighting positions, chokepoints, barricades, and tank bunkers that Lord Gort has his remaining force either garrison or set up to contest against the Belkan pushes. Tank traps are created using building debris or car wrecks. Manhole covers are used as protective barriers for machine gun crews. Even market stalls are converted into remotely-detonated booby traps in a stroke of desperate genius. Yet, try as they may, the Eruseans are still losing ground, albeit at a noticeably reduced rate than before. Lord Gort knows that this can change at any given moment, however.
Unlike the initial opening hours where the Belkans actively employ precision artillery and airstrikes, the remaining stretch to the EEF's headquarters is conducted very conventionally. Belkan soldiers and tanks advance slowly and steadily, with a noticeable lack of widespread fire support. They still use some of them, yes, but not to the point of bombing the whole city block. Lord Gort infers this act of mercy as either the Belkans dread potential friendly fire incidents or they're giving him and the rest of his staff some face. Either way, Lord Gort decides to make full use of this leeway, but not so that he can cause as much damage as possible to the Belkans. No, the man is willing to be an annoying prick by causing the Belkans to spend as much time as possible to uproot each and every single Erusean position.
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In general, the plan is to do a fight and retreat all the way to the HQ. Every step of the way, the Belkans are to be greeted with a hail of bullets, forcing them to slow down and take cover. Then, before the Belkans can unleash Hell upon them, the Erusean defenders retreat to the next fighting position, hopefully without many casualties. Jumping from building to building, running from a roadblock to a hull-down tank, crawling through a hole in the wall to emerge out next to a hidden machine gun nest... The Eruseans use every trick both in and off the book they can think of, somehow motioning through everything with frazzled spirits and bodies. They're losing still, of course, but for the first time in a while, they're actually achieving something credible against the infallible Belkan Reich. That thing is them steadily becoming the most annoying enemy the Belkan military has ever faced.
Hell, the Eruseans even manage to knock out a few Belkan AFVs, with one being a complete kill, through sheer ingenuity. Remember those market stalls being rigged with booby traps? Well, a Leopard MBT proceeds to drive through some of them, not noticing the bomb-laden terrain which turns out to be a big mistake. An Erusean sapper, hiding and camouflaging himself with garbage in a drainage ditch, depresses the detonator and nearly wipes out the entire market. The big blast, created by multiple improvised explosive devices using 25-pounder shells and propellant charges, is enough to flip the Leopard MBT onto its side and is even enough to collapse a nearby house overlooking the marketplace. The crew, having left their hatch open, perishes due to overpressure and the tank's equipment is trashed alongside most of its engine block. Belkan casualties rise when soldiers, who spread out to clear the buildings around the marketplace, are affected by the blast and fragmentations as well. The Erusean sapper, the Allied hero of the day, escapes without even confirming the extent of his handiwork. The invincibility of Belkan tanks is so deeply entrenched in the sapper's mind that he thinks the explosion was only enough to knock off a track or two.
Modern as Belkan composite armor and anti-blast measure may be, the controllers of Belkan war machines are still very much mortal. They're as fallible as anyone else, given enough firepower. And really, even with the turret hatches closed, a Leopard MBT will still find itself decimated by the explosion of half of an artillery battery's worth of munition right next to and under it. There's literally no practical way to build a land vehicle that can withstand that much punishment, even with Magitech involved... Unless a certain Shoggoth recruits herself in the design and construction process but that kinda defeats the point.
Regardless, unlike prior mission kills or mobility kills, this straight-up kill hammers the fact that Belka is not invincible to, well, the Belkans themselves. Anything can and will go wrong on the battlefield, even with overwhelming advantage and the holy blessings of the Mother Goddess on their sides. It's this catastrophic loss of a modern MBT and the entirety of its crew that General Belladonna decides that she has paid enough respect to her Erusean peer already. Any more dilly-allying around, the Reich Marshal will surely have her head, much like what she did to Admiral Tallulah.
General Belladonna does not fancy being sent back to the academy, thank you very much.
The kiddy gloves are coming off, and while it's preferable to have the EEF surrender in its entirety, it's not that hard of a requirement anymore. To enforce the curtain call on her enemy, General Belladonna throws in her get-out-of-jail ticket.
She sends in the Ravens.