“Civilian evacuations have been initiated by the new Gallian government in Toldoi. The GAF has now taken a forceful role in the evacuations, with the city’s civilian populace being told to ‘leave at once’ for ‘their protection’. Barricades, barbed wires, sandbags, bunkers, traps, and everything else are being prepared in the Gallian capital. Armored vehicles and military trucks are pouring in, with the city’s outskirts also being fortified with extensive trenches, tank traps, and other static defenses to accompany the planned ‘defense in depth’ tactic that the Gallians would use. Meanwhile, CFN forces have managed to overrun two more cities just fifty kilometers away from Toldoi, as the GAF retreat becomes more and more pronounced.”
- Geopol News
+++
West Orland
November Palace
July 2, 2025
“Gentlemen, ladies,” General Albrecht greeted as the rest of the Heiss Cabinet filed into the room. The other heads of the Armed Forces, namely Admiral Halberd, and Chief Air Marshall Zimmerman, rose to greet the civilian ministers. Amelie herself shook the two officer’s hands with a smile as she went to her seat. Around them, the staff and clerks began preparing for the presentation, with the screens being turned on, and water bottles distributed. “We’re going to have quite the long talk today, unfortunately. Right now, as you may know, the situation in our allied country of Gallia has been…less than stellar.”
“I thought the air campaign was doing well,” Jacqueline said as she sat on her seat, placing down her files on the table with a sigh. “How’s the Air Force doing at their job?”
“We’re doing our best,” the Chief Air Marshal replied curtly. “But we are preparing for a massive offensive. Sorties are now down to prepare for that. We’d be running a lot of CAS operations once it begins, and our munitions count doesn’t grow from trees.”
“We’re trying to fix that,” Anne said with a smile. “We’re packing missiles and ordnance as fast as possible. I believe in two months, the problem will be temporarily resolved.”
“And that’s the problem,” General Albrecht said. “We don’t have one month. Or two months. Or three months. We have a few weeks. Not three. Two. Possibly not even one. Right now, we have to decide how we will best use the equipment, supplies, men, and assets we have present on Gallia and Lorathia. That’s what we’ll have in the upcoming short campaign.”
“I’ve made the decision,” Amelie announced. “We’re launching the offensive within next week. That’s why they’re in a rush. We can’t let Toldoi fall.”
The screens booted up at last, finally presenting the breakdown of the numbers, the operational maps, and the most important of them all—the order of battle, for the ministers. All of them looked at the presentation screens, as General Albrecht took his baton to begin his presentation.
“Ladies and gents, this…is the situation in the frontlines as it stands,” the map, which used to be empty, was suddenly filled with military symbols, representing different units. All of the known CFN units were represented with diamond symbols alongside their designations. Gallian units, on the other hand, mostly positioned in the frontline itself, were represented with green symbols. Meanwhile, most units of the LEF and OEF were at the backline, as reserves, represented with yellow and blue symbols respectively. “As of now, the Gallian Army is responsible for much of the front. Approximately nine hundred thousand soldiers divided into four armies have been deployed by the GAF on the frontlines. They are, as of now, supported by the I OEF Corps and the I and III LEF Corps, making up the 1st MN Mobile Expeditionary Army, with around eighty thousand troops in total.”
He shook his head.
“They cannot hold the frontlines alone. As you all know, we’ve held the majority of our expeditionary forces to the rear to limit their losses, and to prepare them for a very logistically intensive operation. A counteroffensive that will knock out the Larissan bear off from our allies’ soil—and plunge deep into Poznek afterward.”
“Are we ready for that?” Allison curiously asked. “I mean, they’ve been sitting there for a while.”
“It’s simple why, Minister Thell,” the General responded. “These units required a lot of reinforcements when they arrived. These brigades had to stay there and reorganize as they received new units, we expanded their sizes and new equipment. That, and they mostly had to help with the establishment of robust supply lines throughout the Gallian interior. Fuel depots. Maintenance bases. Munition depots. Bases. A lot. All of this means that these forces are now at their best conditions for years. All that was left a few days ago was the timing of the counteroffensive, which was decided by Her Majesty.”
“So are they ready?”
“Not at the hundred percent optimum rate, but at around ninety percent,” the General answered. “Yes. They are ready.”
“Well, perfection is the enemy of victory,” Walter calmly stated as he sipped water from his bottle. “It’s time to strike, I believe.”
“Mhm,” Pristina agreed. “I said that already last week. We should have struck already. So many other fronts require our attention. Namely Hebei and Kusari.”
“Yeah, even if we gave the job of fixing that problem to the Royal Guard, Navy, and the Marine Corps, the situation there also requires our attention soon,” Amelie said. “So please, now that I gave the green light on this operation, finish it quickly. I need to divert some of our mobile elements to support our KDUs in Kusari.”
“Kusari is a problem, yes, but, again, we’ll deal with it after we destroy them at Gallia and Poznek,” General Albrecht said. “Now, moving onto the most important part, the projections on both sides.”
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He pointed his baton at one of the screens. Depicted on it were the first bullet points, showing the numbers on the CFN’s side. Amelie shook her head as she looked at it. That was really jarring to see. They had so many assets moved in Gallia that she was really, really worried about how this offensive would go. She almost wanted to look away and wave it off as ‘faulty intelligence’, but she knew better than that.
“On their side, the CFN holds a combined force of approximately four thousand active main battle tanks of all types in Gallia,” General Albrecht said. “That’s between multiple identified ‘Tank Armies’. Namely, the 1st Guards Tank Army, the 4th Guards Tank Army, the 15th Guards Tank Army, and a number of Separate Tank Regiments.”
“18th…” Allison muttered.
“Yes, that includes the 18th Separate Tank Regiment, involved in the Edel Massacre three weeks ago. Gallian POWs and civilians. Women and children. They even sent tanks to drive on a few of them.”
“Absolutely disgusting,” Jacqueline said. “These people are vile.”
“I’m just repeating what we found out. These people we are facing aren’t just driving around thousands of tanks and other armored vehicles. They’re an army fueled by fanaticism, hatred, and disgust about everything that we stand for. They literally refuse to take Orlish POWs because they see them as traitors to the revolution. They’re no brothers to us. They’re rabid animals.”
He pointed his baton at the manpower count of the enemy.
“Approximately two point four million rabid animals. I want to make things clear. We’re already in fact preparing for the next escalations that the Larissans might take if their offensive fails and we maul them. We expect that the enemy is planning to deploy both persistent and non-persistent chemical weapons. Remember, each soldier in this figure crossed the border wearing a CBRN suit. They only need to don their gas masks once the order from the top comes. We’re not yet provoking them because most of the Gallian Army is still trying to issue protective suits to their soldiers, but we are preparing. They will be ruthless. They have already been ruthless. Both in the First Great War and certainly now.”
“Well, General Albrecht, I can see that you’re quite charged right now,” Amelie said. “But let’s not refer to all those people as animals. I understand that many of them hold extreme hatred for…the world order as it stands, but I refuse to believe that all of them fighting under the CFN banner are evil young men. We’ll rout them. And many of them will surrender. I’m sure of it.”
“Quite naive, but alright, Your Majesty,” General Albrecht breathed in. “We do have some fortunate news for us. The Gallians have really harmed them in their offensive. The tallies right now on their losses are as high as one thousand eight hundred armored losses.”
The ministers all looked as the screen presented images of destroyed Larissan columns, individual tanks, and what else was taken down by MN forces. Amelie smiled a bit as she looked at it, certainly proud of the defenders valiantly holding their ground and inflicting damage. In fact, she remembered how well some of her units, namely the Donnergrollen Brigade and the reformed Rattenkönig Brigade to name a few, were doing for the last few weeks in the I OEF Corps. Their kill ratios had been insane, and she was now starting to consider giving out a lot of medals personally to their newly produced aces.
“Their infantry losses have also been staggering numbers. Our estimates are now running at nearly two hundred thousand casualties. Both dead and wounded. This is in contrast to approximately seventy to eighty thousand losses sustained by Allied forces on the ground. We are bleeding them out at a constantly better ratio. The only problem is that they’re grinding out our frontline units with fresh replacements, constantly. Causing casualties can only do so much when the enemy can send three tanks to your one tank.”
“I can almost applaud the Gallians for that,” Walter said. “Quite impressive that they’re doing half-well after Queen Clericia’s glorious mismanagement.”
Pristina frowned.
“Can we not mock a dead woman for once?”
“Sure, Defense Minister.”
Amelie sighed as she looked back at the General, trying to ignore the headbutting officials under her.
“Right. Now, onto the capabilities of our side, specifically, the ones going into the offensive. We have four OEF corps available from Orland, alongside seven LEF Corps available from the Lorathians,” General Albrecht explained, showing the order of battle under VACCOM (Vaeyox Continental Command) command in Gallia. “They’re now divided into three operational armies under Army Group Gallia, led by General Elias Holl. One of our most seasoned commanders when it comes to armored warfare.”
He then showed the number of assets present.
“Army Group Gallia does not include Gallian forces, instead, it only includes the 1st and 4th Lorathian Armies assigned to the counteroffensive and the 3rd Orlish Mobile Army. All Orlish units in Gallia are under the 3rd Orlish Mobile Army aside from those under the I OEF Corps. As for the positioning, the 3rd Orlish Mobile Army will be responsible for the counteroffensive on the south—that will swing up north to meet the pincers from the northern thrust conducted by the 1st and 4th Lorathian Armies.”
The map showed how the units were projected to move. Most Lorathian units were in the northern coasts—there, they moved to the frontline, then punched forward, racing in the coasts. Down south, Amelie watched as the symbols of Orlish units under the 3rd Mobile Army drove up, passing near the border of Pez and Gallia, then pushing north.
Meanwhile, the Gallian Army units remained in the center—pinning and holding the CFN units that were punching toward Toldoi.
A massive encirclement. Amelie thought. Nice.
“In the center, the Larissans and Poznekis will be caught off-balance by these massive, sudden thrusts. Gallia, with its leftover reserves, will push in a last-ditch offensive to pin their units in place, or to put pressure on them while they retreat. While we overrun their weaker flanks, we’ll manage to push them out of Gallia, encircling them with our pincers from the northern coast and from the south. If not, the pace of their retreat will force them to abandon most of their heavier equipment, rendering their armies weak for the next punch…”
The arrows then pointed in Poznek’s direction as the pincers closed, with most of their units actually escaping the massive encirclement by the time the fronts stabilized. It seemed to be a conservative projection to Amelie’s view, but she knew that they’d have extreme losses from such a pullout.
“Straight into Poznek. A decisive victory that will hand us a good result in this campaign,” General Albrecht announced. “And we’ll be doing it with one thousand three hundred tanks. That’s it. That’s the entire force of Army Group Gallia. Outnumbered nearly four to one. Even if we consider the few hundred tanks left in the Gallian Army. This…is a risky maneuver that might end up as a disaster, or win us the greatest victory since the Great War.”
“Let’s try to win it then,” Amelie said. “As you envisioned there.”
“We’ll do our best, Your Majesty.”