"What are we doing again, sarge?"
"Apparently, there should be a small contingent of Borpiden units in a town two miles from here. They use that town as a supply depot that is close to the front line."
Caspar looks at the small twelve-man team that he had been assigned for the mission. The mission is not supposed to be difficult, attack the town, and either capture or destroy their supplies.
Without supplies in the area, any offensive or defensive actions, the Oskiuum-Borpiden army plans to take will be tens if not hundreds of times more difficult.
"Our mission is to capture that town, and either transport or destroy their supplies."
It was a quiet march, no enemy patrols in the area, no civilians wandering around close to the town, there wasn't even any wildlife roaming or grazing the overgrown grass.
The uneventful quiet did not set Caspar and his soldier's minds at ease, though. Somehow they knew that something seemed wrong, that this was merely the calm before the storm.
It was not long before the town came into sight. Everything seemed normal, abandoned buildings, overgrown fields, and the occasional patrols going around the town.
The main roads heading into and out of the town were covered in sandbags, there also seemed to be some machine gun nests providing a field of death covering the passages.
Looking at the town did not seem to ease the soldier's minds. Everything was wrong, there had just been an attack on their front line, but the town looks to be operating as usual.
Caspar takes one more look at the town, then turns and looks at his men for a minute before speaking.
"Well, what are we waiting for? The town won't capture itself."
---------------------------
Back in the newly captured trench line, a man is rushing to the command room. As soon as he reaches the entrance, the guards stop him.
After what had happened with the injured gunman, Carsten had tightened the security around the prince.
"What's your purpose in coming here, soldier?"
"I have a message for his highness, one of the captured officers just spoke."
The guards look at each other for a second before letting the man in. In the room, Lothar sat at a table while staring at a map, no one knew what he was thinking about.
He does not seem to notice the soldier's entrance as his mind keeps wandering. The soldier salutes and hands a folded document to Lothar.
"Your highness!"
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Lothar raises his head from the map, takes a look at the soldier then at the paper in his extended hand.
"What is this?"
Lothar asks as he receives the document from the extended hand of the soldier.
"It is intelligence that one of the captured officers just revealed to us, your highness."
Lothar looks at the soldier one last time with his brows knitted together. Somehow, something did not seem right to him, the enemy response was too sluggish.
No matter how much of a surprise advantage they had, or how underprepared the enemy army seemed to be. The confederacy had been fighting Oskiuum and it's vassal's long enough to know what kind of destruction they were capable of.
Lothar opens the document and starts reading it, before shooting up to his feet.
"DAMN! Since when?"
"According to the officer, two weeks, your highness. They kept most of their army in the dark."
Lothar stands there for a second before turning to Carsten, who is also in the room, as he hands him the document.
"Carsten, prepare the men. We will be moving as soon as possible."
Carsten looks at the document as his brows get closer and closer together, then he nods.
"As you command, your highness!"
But all that Lothar could think of as his face contorts in worry was.
'You better stay safe, Caspar'
-----------------------
Caspar and his men were already in the town, scurrying from building to building as to not get noticed by the abundance of enemy troops in the town.
"Damn, wasn't this supposed to be a sparsely defended supply town? What the hell is going on with all these men?"
One of the men whispered to Caspar and the rest of the men as they jump into another abandoned building.
"I don't know! But we have our mission, and by god, I will finish it!"
Caspar whispers back sternly to the rest of his men, this mission might spell destruction to them, but he knew that if he let morale slip right now, they definitely won't be making it back alive.
"We should be getting close to their supplies now. We will set up explosives and leave. We will try to avoid all engagements with the enemy."
Caspar continues as he tries to calm his men down. But as soon as they peak through the window to see if the coast is clear for them to rush into the next building.
They are greeted by an enemy patrol, as stunned as they were, staring back at them.
It was oddly quiet for a couple of seconds, but one of the patrolmen starts shouting to alert his allies. In response, one of Caspar's soldiers starts shooting. Chaos has descended on a quiet town in the northeastern front.
"DAMN IT ALL!"
Shouts Caspar, but soon they completely annihilate the small enemy patrol. Not all is fine, though, since they hear screaming and running coming closer to their position.
"Alright men, they already know we're here, all guns blazing, we're going to finish this in style!"
Caspar and his team now race to the next building to take cover as more and more men show up. The enemy starts firing as soon as they see them.
The team gets into cover then proceeds to return fire to the enemy, after all, they were in cover while their enemy was not, yet.
Caspar and his team fight their way through more and more enemy squads as they get closer to the town center. But soon, the battle starts turning.
BOOM!
The building they were in starts crumbling and crashing down under its own weight.
"What the hell was THAT?"
A soldier of Caspar's team asks as he climbs up from the ground and dusts himself.
"Artillery. Is everyone accounted for?"
Replies Caspar as he checks the status of his team.
"Two are missing sarge!"
"Fuck! We need to move before they decide that one shell isn't enough."
Caspar and his team keep moving until soon they find themselves in front of a heavily guarded building.
"What in heaven's name is in there?"
"I don't know, but the more they want to protect it, the more I want to destroy it."
"Alright, men, if whatever is inside is worth that much to them, then maybe if we capture it, they would be less likely to keep attacking us."
Caspar cobbles up a quick and dirty plan to storm the heavily defended building, and soon they get to implement it.
The team mounts a hard push into one of the side entrances of the building, the enemy defended well, but Caspar puts his rifle to good use.
Headshot after headshot from medium range quickly whittles down the defenders. Caspar soon notices something, the defenders are speaking Oskiuumen, not the Borpiden that most ground soldiers speak.
The way Oskiuum does war is they do not deploy their actual Oskiuumen army unless it is for main engagements or essential missions. Usually, they use their vassal's men as cannon fodder to hold the fronts or to throw at and soften Confederacy defenses.
Caspar does not dwell on it for long, though, since as soon as they enter the building, they blow up the entrance so that no one can follow them in from that entrance.