Chapter 51：Hell on Earth

"Double time! Move it!"

Jakob's commandeering voice echoed around his general surroundings as he ordered his battalion forward. The sound of raindrops hitting the floor almost completely nullified the sounds of boots hitting the ground while the sounds of constant explosions continued on in the distance.

Now that the trajectory of the Porrish charge was finally determined and finalised, Jakob received the order to follow through on the prearranged battle plan, of which was to order his battalion; the 7th Alpha Battalion forward into a position on a diagonal slant to the enemy.

The battle plan in question being based on the prediction of the mostly likely scenario; of which took into consideration the Porrish king's personality traits and common stratagems as well as Porrand's current circumstance.

In particular, it was about how the Drussians knew that the Porrish knew that the Drussians could and would use square formation to deal with any conventional cavalry.

As such the Drussians predicted that the Porrish would most likely attempt something akin to what they were doing right now.

Instead of spreading their forces out to be individually quashed, the Porrish instead decided to focus all of their power onto a single point that they hoped could pierce through any defensive line.

Of course, the commanding Drussian officers planned this battle with this idea in mind. In fact, one could say that the Drussians were counting on something like this.

Although the Drussians still had a high chance of winning if the Porrish attempted to use contemporary tactics such as cavalry skirmishing, most of the Drussian officers would agree that this was the best case scenario.

Not only was it the scenario which was predicted to contain the least possible casualties, which made it the strictly better alternative.

But it also meant that the gatling guns could be used more effectively in battle. After all, it was obvious that the gatling guns can only be used efficiently against grouped up enemies huddled together within a relatively short range.

In other words; everyone just wanted to see the gatling gun in action.

Within moments, Jakob's battalion has finally reached their position as they quickly slowed down to a stop before standing up with their back straights as they held their muskets in idle position; ready for their next set of orders.

Looking around Jakob saw that the other Alpha Battalions on both flanks have done the same.

This lead to the Drussian army forming a shape akin to mix of the letter 'U' and 'V' combined.

This was done in order to put the Porrish cavalry into the sight lines of the Drussians flanks.

Although this would have exposed the flanks to a cavalry charge, it was now damn near impossible for the Porrish to change their trajectory due to their method of attack.

The size and nature of the gigantic wedge which consisted of around 30 thousand riders meant that it could not reliably turn to change targets.

Instead, it can only continue at the trajectory that it is already on.

As such, the cavalrymen could only either stick with the bulk of their forces in that massive wedge or they can break off and expose themselves in the process.

For the Porrish it was a lose-lose situation.

Soon, the sound of a particular horn rang through the air.

It was at that moment that Jakob knew that something horrific was about to happen.

A lot of people were about to die.

And yet, Jakob could not stop himself from ensuring that he had a good view atop his warhorse.

It was time to see the steel beasts in action.

…

With both eyes wide open, Vince watched in terror as the Porrish forces was repeatedly bombarded by the multitudes of Drussian artillery. Currently, Vince was one of the either lucky or unlucky few depending on one's perspective, to be at the forefront of the battle.

As such, Vince was able to witness each and every development in the early stages of the battle.

And that included the pure, unadulterated massacre that was occurring right in front of him.

Although he could only barely see the carnage that occurred on the Porrish side with only a vague idea of the pain they were suffering, Vince just couldn't help but feel sympathy for the enemy.

Even as a Drussian soldier who was supposed to be unconcerned with the suffering of his enemy, there was a little part within Vince that screamed a single constant repeating sentence at him.

'This was wrong.'

If it weren't for the Drussian drilling and conditioning instilled in him, Vince was sure that he would have already lost his lunch by this moment.

For the first time in his life, Vince was actually thankful for that hellish drilling regimen that he had to suffer almost every day. A thought that has never before crossed his mind.

What surprised him the most however, was the fact that the Porrish forces were completely unfazed by the bombardment. Even amongst the literal death and destruction that occurred around them, they still continued to charge forth.

Even as they watched their fellow friends and comrades die horrific deaths around them.

Even as they were forced to run over and trample said friends and comrades.

Even as a pseudo 'Hell on Earth' formed around them, their resolve has continued to remain strong as they continued to follow through on their charge.

Vince just could not understand what thoughts were going through the enemy's minds as they literally rode to their deaths.

Nevertheless, as a soldier and member of the Imperial Army of Drussia, Vince still had a job to do. Letting such thoughts linger within his mind would only interfere with his job.

With a stern look on his face, Vince stuck to his position as he continued to watch the Porrish continuing to persevere the literal hellish landscape created by the constant howitzer bombardment.

He watched the Porrish cavalry helplessly run over the bodies of their own comrades, whether they were dead or alive.

If those aforementioned people were somehow able to survive, Vince was sure that they would suffer a slow and painful death due to either intense blood-loss or asphyxiation from drowning in a sea of their blood and mud.

As sick as it may be, Vince was actually somewhat grateful for this so-called 'hell on earth' that was created by the Drussian artillery.

And that was because it made Vince's job a lot easier.

Even though Vince was nothing more than a commoner, the teachings he received with his military training as well as common knowledge told him that this landscaped should have slowed down the Porrish charge considerably.

That meant Vince had a longer window of opportunity to do his job before his enemy inevitably crashed over him in their literal thunderous wave of horses.

And what was Vince's job?

He was the one of the numerous soldiers of the 999th Omega Corps who manned the new experimental weapon; the gatling gun.

And soon, 'it' happened.

A single, lonely sound made by a horn.

A sound of a horn that gave a single signal to each and every gatling gun unit on the battlefield.

When Vince heard the horn, he subconsciously turned to face his unit captain; Captain Jack, who nodded silently to Vince in response.

After taking a deep breath, Vince exhaled as he gripped the crank handle of the gatling gun while his other two team members; Cent and Ray gripped the large vertical magazine and the butt of the gatling gun respectively.

Soon, Ray closed his eyes as he continued to hold on to the butt of the gatling gun before blue runic marks started to glow a dim blue colour.

On the other hand, Cent continued to tightly grip onto the magazine which was nearly as long as a man's arm while Vince continued to stare at the blue runes as it quickly turned from a dim blue light to a bright luminescent light.

And with that bright blue luminescent light as his signal, Vince put more strength into his arms as he spun the crank in a circular motion.

And with that, an endless stream of metal was spewed forth from the mouth of the steel beast.

…

Shawn was so amazed by the sheer power of the new weapon that he almost forgot to follow through on his orders. After firing a shot in a volley and kneeling down to reload, Shawn took this moment to contemplate his thoughts.

As he did this, he glanced to his right to glance at one of the numerous gatling gun crews that fired an endless stream of metal at the Porrish forces.

A literal steel beast that left nothing but death and destruction in its wake.

He was sure that the sheer firepower of a few gatling gun units was comparable to or surpassed even entire infantry regiments.

As countless men and horse alike fell to the unparalleled might of the gatling gun.

Unlike artillery bombardment where Shawn could only have a vague idea of the pain his enemy was suffering under the pressure of an overwhelming heavy weapon, Shawn had a very clear, vivid picture of the enemy's pain and suffering right in front of him.

Very clearly, he was able to witness the gatling guns literally grind the Porrish forces down into an indistinguishable mess of gore and guts.

Where blood and bone mixed with the muds and metals of the earth to form literal mountains of bodies that the Porrish struggled climb over, further causing difficulties in their charge.

There was no point in even denying it.

It was already over.

Although some of the Porrish nobles who somehow survived the initial bombardment and bullet barrage managed to get off some shots from their pistol muskets, the Imperial Army was largely unharmed.

This wasn't a battle.

It was a massacre.

Although Shawn participated in crushing victories in the past during his time in the violet army, never before in his career has he witnessed something like this.

In past battles, the Violet Army has suffered at least minimal casualties but here, the Imperial Army was virtually unharmed. Even though that battle was yet to official end, Shawn was sure that the victor of this battle was already determined.

There was no doubt that this was due to the contribution of the gatling gun.

A mindless killing machine that is able to take the lives of dozens of men within seconds with minimal effort.

With the metal monster that was the gatling gun in mind, Shawn was left to wonder, just how trivial the concept of 'life' really was.