Many before have already written about how a defence is needless, because a good offence will remove the need to defend. That is true, if you force your opponents to defend, they will not attack you. This is a good philosophy to hold, yet it can be extended into farce. The only person I know who does not need to even give mind to defence is Olephia, and that is because there is no one in their right mind who would attack her.
I do not consider there to be a difference between a “school of offence” and a “school of defence”, both are merely different aspects of war. In the same a student needs to have talent in literature and mathematics to graduate, I have consider both as my speciality.
Excerpt from “The Philosophy of War”, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War
Kassandora looked over the port of Nanbasa as she sighed. Uriamel would come from the ocean, that she knew. They had a massive production capacity, as they did back in the Great War, that she knew. The people of that land could breathe in both air and in water, that she knew. And that was all she knew. There was nothing else which she could say, everything else would be merely speculation or conjecture. Would they have ships? Or would they swim? Would animals carry them? There was another issue with fighting Uriamel. Back then, they had merely served as the manufacturing base for the White Pantheon. To counter what the Dwarves could produce. Kassandora had not actually seem them field an army, even though she knew they were capable of one. Uriamel would come from the ocean, and that was all she knew.
Kassandora sighed as she straightened her back. The wind carried her crimson hair like a cape, and she pulled her black coat close around her. Iliyal was behind her, as were the generals Sokolowski, Zalewski and Ekkerson. The three humans, although all four were technically the same rank, Iliyal led them simply by virtue of his seniority. Such hierarchies were impossible to contain, so there was no point to even try and fight against their natural formations.
So Kassandora looked out over the ports. They could be fortified. In fact, would on them would start today. That was a blessing the knew machinery gave her. There was no need to build tall walls to stop the mass of men armed with melee, not when a single squad armed with machine guns could mow down as many as ammunition allowed for. If she put up walls now, then all they would do is serve as a shield for her opponents. “How long do you think we’ll have?” Kassandora asked. She knew the answer already, she was simply killing time as her mind finished formulising the plan. If they survived here, then she could actually start worrying about Epa. Arascus had said that was his side of the war until she would be able to take over.
“It could be today, it could be a year from now.” Iliyal said. “Anything else is purely speculation.”
“Which one would you bet on?” Kassandora asked, personally, she was expecting Uriamel forces to suddenly start crossing the horizon any moment now.
“Today.” Iliyal replied flatly. “Under the logic that Allasaria has been gone for so long, the most efficient route for her to take would be Uriamel, then Pichqasuyu, then Alanktyda, then return to the Pantheon. I would say they’ve been preparing for the past eleven months.”
“I see absolutely no reason to disagree with that.” Kassandora said idly as one of the giant container ships blew its massive horn. It started to slowly pull up its anchor, a massive chain of steel, each link as wide as Kassandora was tall. The cranes began to turn away, one of the bridges disconnected, men began calmly walking away as they worked and trucks and forklifts swarmed past them to the next ship. That steel colossus was already waiting. “This is what we’ll do.” She took a deep breath, and prepared to list off all the ways to prepare. “Firstly, the Reclamation War will be put on the backburner, we will tell the public that we are preparing for a naval invasion, but we’ll keep on burning the Jungle.”
Helenna recalled the script-points Kassandora had given her. They would continue the war, but it would slow down as they would also start preparing defences on the coast. That seemed easy enough.
Kassandora continued. “The further we manage to push it, the more of a time buffer we have in Uriamel’s invasion. The Jungle cannot be allowed to reclaim the new resource extraction sights, nor cut them off logistically.” So actually, now that she thought, they should push the Lemurs further.
Jeffrey wiped his brow as his team worked on this Lemur. He had been happy at first, when he heard that the Binturongs were being transferred off the front and towards coastal defence. And then he realised that the work schedule had only increased. They had a tenth less guns than the week before, and they were burning twice as much Jungle.
He looked at that marvellous concoction of pipes and tanks that made up an engine. He grabbed a spanner, wedged it under a thick rubber tube, and gently lifted it. He complained about these vehicles a lot, but during the night of celebration after the White Pantheon had been defeated, Fer had led them to inspect the various cars that the civilians had come in.
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The Lemur could break, the Lemur was not pretty, the Lemur was loud, the Lemur was slow but if there was one thing that Jeffrey appreciated in anyone, it was honesty, and the Lemur was honest. The oil tank needed replacing and the tubes re-attaching, that was it.
Kassandora looked out over the deep blue ocean in the distance. It was a picturesque blue in the sunlight, with dozens of heavy tankers and container ships waiting to enter Nanbasa’s port. “We’re approaching hard terrain in the Jungle, aren’t we?” She knew the answer already. Sokolowski stepped in to reply.
“WATCH OUT!” Sergeant Janek shouted as he jumped back. Something this happened with the ash. It would sprinkle and build up over riverbeds, or over holes, ravines were the worst. One moment, a man would be treading through the ash as he pathed out a way for the wheeled Lemurs, the next, he would be gone. Swallowed by it. It was rough pushing, and the fact the terrain here got more mountainous only slowed it down further. Kassandora apparently wanted these lands, they were rich in iron.
“We start flying daily sorties with KAF.” Kassandora said. “Mount cameras on the undersides, as powerful as you can get, and fly high as to avoid the Jungle’s call. But record the terrain. We start on more bombings too.” The Goddess of War finished and Sokolowski saluted to show he would relay the order.
Captain Douglas opened up a magazine in his cockpit and began to read. One hand on the control stick between his legs, one hand flicking the pages. He was fly high over that sea of green today, it was boring work. But it was needed, and Erik on Divine Transport Duty today, so Douglas was flying alone.
Kassandora took a deep breath as she looked out over the port, then turned to look in the other direction. “Nanbasa will be held obviously, I will have a meeting with Arascus, to see what other cities will need to be defended.”
Arascus looked at the map of Kirinyaa as Kassandora sat next to him. She had taken a bottle of whiskey and poured both of them a glass. Arascus simply liked the taste, he didn’t need one today. This wasn’t a pleasant job, but it was one he had done may times already. Maybe men with weaker characters would flee from it. Kassandora herself had little to say about it, she simply wanted to know what she was working with. Arascus sighed as he placed a pin on Nanbasa. Obviously, the capital would need to stand. He sighed and pulled out another pin. Maybe other men wouldn’t be able of doing it, but he had no issue telling Kassandora who should live, and who should die.
“Iniri will start work on coastal walls.” Kassandora said as Sokolowski started writing down the order. Iliyal moved to fall in with the three men and another gust of wind swept in to blow five black coats.
Iniri knelt down and touched the ground. A wall of oak burst from the ground before her, it twisted and grew, vines curled and tightened, crenulations sprouted under a canopy of leaves. Branches expanded into platforms, more became ladders and stairs. More walls, enclosures for Kassandora’s artillery, then the walls formed firing locations for machine guns. Iniri stood up and rubbed her hands to together. She turned to one of the soldiers Kassandora had given her as an assistant. He handed her a bottle and the Goddess greedily drank it, then another. One wall finished, time for the next.
“What she will build, we will then reinforce with concrete.” Kassandora said, another gust of wind blew her hair as she stood her four generals on that pier. “And steel, whatever you can think off, contact Mikhail Alash if you need help.”
General Ekkerson looked over Iniri’s huge walls. These were monstrous already, more than enough to stop whatever attacker he could imagine, but Kassandora had said to make them thicker, so make them thicker he did. Steel beams and girders were being slowly lowered and driven into the wood, then the whole structure was being reinforced with a layer of concrete.
Kassandora turned and looked back at the city. Uriamel would come from the ocean and that was all she knew, but that was all she needed to know. “Sokolowski, this is your job, you will move the industry further west.” It had been done in the past, so it shall be done now. The man looked at her in befuddlement for a moment and the Goddess of War sighed. Maybe she should explain this to him.
General Damian Sokolowski looked at the two cranes as they slowly hoisted a massive furnace into the air. Two days ago, it was refining raw iron ore. Yesterday, it was being cleaned. Today, it was being moved. At first, he had thought this was going to be an impossibility. How could a factory just be moved? But then he sat down and thought on it. At the end of the day, what did a factory even require to be called a factory? He was going to move important machinery, and the structure could remain. Frankly, once Kassandora explained the fact he was not moving an entire city district brick-by-brick, it really was a manageable job. The sorcerers were already working with ground crews twenty miles west of Nanbasa to pull up new buildings from the ground to house the machinery, and the engineering corps were laying down roads for the workers.
“Iliyal.” Kassandora started pointing to various districts in Nanbasa. “You are on city garrisons. Pull men from the Reclamation War as you need to, with Clerics and sorcerers. However many you need, whoever you need. Just fill them in, multiple layers in each city. Use the civilian infrastructure as needed. Take over homes, but make sure you don’t upset the populace too much.” She finished, Iliyal would know what she had in mind. Assigning Divines would then be her responsibility.
Iliyal watched as a dozen Lemurs began to fill up a quarter of a mall’s parking space. They would stay here for now, and later be separated once he found locations and plans for each individual team to use, already he found locations to hide several. From the tops of multi-storey carparks to the entrances of tunnels to warehouses left behind by Sokolowski’s industrial retreat. It would be a lot of work, but there was Goddess Kassandora, there was him, and then there was everyone else. He’d rather it be a competent member of that hierarchy do the planning.
“And then…” Kassandora said as she turned back to look at the ocean. And what then? It was all she could do frankly, the war would be won based on whether Epa would win its conflict or not. They had no real way of harming Uriamel as things stood right now. “And then we wait for the long haul.”