Chapter 76：Operation Trojan

"And once that final strategic objective has been seized, victory not just for this campaign but perhaps for this entire war will fall into the hands of the Confederacy."

Michelle stopped pointing at the designated area on the map on the board and instead moved her hand back behind her back as she concluded the mission briefing of the upcoming operation.

"And that concludes the briefing of this, rather straightforward operation. I trust that there aren't any questions?"

"No Ma'am!"

All of the uniformed men that lined up in an orderly manner in the ship's hull replied in a synchronous chorus to Michelle's question. A sight which brought a smile to Michelle's face.

As she looked over the organised 'blocks' of uniformed men which filled the ship's hull, it became easy for Michelle to imagine what it would be like to be in Maxwell's position as emperor when he stood in front of the masses.

Of course, this comparison couldn't really relate in terms of scale but it did give Michelle a good indicator of what is to come if her future plans were to unfold perfectly. With that in mind, Michelle couldn't help reminiscing about her past. Both in this life, and her previous one.

However, she was also well aware that such thoughts were unimportant as of this moment.

As a wise but flawed man of her original world once said, 'The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present and fools of the future.'

Granted, Michelle was technically speaking of the past by bringing such a quote up and granted, the quote came from a man whose hubris ultimately became his downfall. As with most quotes of her past life, Michelle found that while they were not entirely false, they were not entirely true either.

If it was her in the man's position when he was saying the quote, she would have said something along the lines of.

"The stupid speak of the past, the ignorant of the present, fools of the future and the wise evaluate and speak of all three."

After all, if anything, that man was a prime example of why one should learn from their past. Not only could he serve as an example of how even the greatest general of the world's then greatest army could fall, but he was also someone who didn't learn from history when he lead a little campaign to the east.

How ironic indeed.

Of course, Michelle ensured that she would learn from this man's mistakes as she took another step forward on her military career.

With a confident yet slight smile on her face, Michelle gave out her command to the men lined up in front of her.

"Then I expect perfect performances from all of you tonight! While we have hundreds more men at our disposal, our numbers will mean nothing unless you clear a path for us! The fate of not just this battle, but this entire war as a whole lays in your hands. Keep that in mind when the moment of truth arrives!"

When Michelle glanced around the men, she was able to spot a bit of unease in their eyes. Even the commanding officers by her side displayed the same sort of anxiety, but in truth, Michelle actually also knew the reason why.

It was not because they were uncomfortable with or about with their chances of success or survival, after all, everyone here was a trained skirmisher who has been preparing in the past three or so years for this specific operation alone. And if they were to meet their end, they would meet their end gladly as a Breetish martyr.

The real cause of their unease was actually because not every soldier here within the hull of the ship was of Breetish decent, the other half of the men which filled her ships hulls who while still wore the same uniform and colours off the Breetish forces were in fact, actually Drussian skirmishers.

This is because they were Drussian soldiers temporarily 'lent' to the Breetish in a 'joint operation,' due to the sheer significance of this operation. The key to this operation being that it would seem that only Breetish forces were invading when in-fact Drussians were involved too.

Because if this operation were to succeed, the entire war could end in an instant.

Just before Michelle can dismiss the soldiers however, a sudden thought came into her head. Michelle gave a stern look at the Drussian blocks of men as she gave them a reminder in their own language.

"Oh and please do remember, no Drussian."

...

The docklands of Jardim city was fuelled with more energy than usual as men worked and toiled to clear the docks for the arrival of a new trade fleet. However, this specific scene may appear to be more chaotic than it had any right to be.

It probably had something to do with the fact that to most people, it was almost as if this fleet literally appeared overnight.

On the forefront docks of those very docklands, Rose was currently dealing with a minor headache which took the form of a human being.

"Lady Finaflor... I apologise but I must admit that I am a bit sceptical of this 'enterprising' fleet that you want to dock onto the docklands, although I know that you are a member of the noble house of Finaflor, it is still your older Sister Orchid who governs Jardim City and I do not remember being informed by her about such an event."

The noble 'knight' in charge of the security of the docklands; Sir Dan Knyee Yel, moved his hand into an open palm and placed them in front of Rose as he made a request of her with what she felt to to be the most irritating voice that she had ever heard.

"As such, I must ask you for your older sister's signature."

This knight, the so-called 'Sir Dan Knyee Yel' was actually a knight of Panish decent, one of the few that Orchid's husband brought with him when they married. Of course, Orchid and her husband just had to give the Panish knights rather high authoritative positions within what should be a Portegeese city.

It was really just another one within a long list of reasons why Rose was justified in detesting her older sister, and especially why she detested Orchid's husband.

Nevertheless, Rose was still able to keep her calm disposition as she handed a document that detailed the arrival of the fleet, their reason for being here and contained the 'signature' of the current head of the Finaflor family; Orchid Phlorescer Finaflor.

Rose had no idea how the person who was responsible for the forgery of that signature, the enigmatic Sicilia not only knew what Orchird's ridiculous signature looked like but was able to also create a perfect replica. There's no doubt that those 'agents' were involved.

Despite her thoughts, Rose still knew that she had no real right to complain.

With a fake smile that Rose felt appeared genuine enough, she handed the documents to Dan.

"But of course, it is right here."

When Dan took the documents away from Rose's hands, he only seemed to have skimmed through the documents' contents before briefly stopping at Orchid's signature before he shrugged and haphazardly handed the documents back to Rose.

"Alright I see no problem with it, have a nice evening Lady Finaflor."

Before he left Rose alone on the docks.

As Dan walked away, Rose gave him her response even though she was well aware that he could no longer hear her.

"Oh I will... I will indeed..."

Rose did not know what sort of smile her face formed as she muttered to herself.

"I will enjoy this evening when pieces of shit like you are all lying dead in the dirt."

...

Through the windows of her warehouse based in Jardim city, Sicilia watched the fleet draw closer to the docklands.

She couldn't help twisting her mouth upwards into a smile as the ships continued to near the frontmost docks. With that smile, Sicilia let a few words out of her mouth.

"How idiotic... the fools are basically about to open the doors to let their enemy inside... In a way, I almost feel sorry for them, don't you?"

Of course, she received no response to what she said. However, it was not because she was alone in the warehouse that she received no reply but instead because the people who did accompany her in the warehouse simply did not possess the ability to speak their mind.

Not that Sicilia wasn't used to this, it was just that it felt rather nice to speak out was on her mind even though she knew that she would receive no response. In her honest opinion, it was leagues better than speaking aloud to oneself even if the people she was 'speaking' with had no capacity to return the conversation in the first place.

At the very least she won't receive a snarky or cynical response from any of her brothers and for some reason, she found this 'affirmative silence' to be a lot more bearable than the 'yes-men' that she typically had to deal with.

However, while the men that accompanied her, the wraiths were not able to speak their mind, they will still reply or speak up when commanded to, albeit in their own 'unique' way.

Even though it was probably best for her to be fully alert, she was not able to overcome her boredom and it couldn't possibly hurt to kill some time in the few minutes before the ships actually docked.

All she had to do was say something mission related to have a 'conversation' with the wraiths.

Soon, Sicilia raised her voice as she called out one of the nearby wraiths.

"Operative Aldrin, can I confirm that you successfully disrupted internal communications between the administration of the castle and the docklands?"

As Sicilia expected, 'Aldrin' responded with the typical robotic voice and tone that characterised every wraith.

"Target kills: Confirmed. Enemy's communication: Successfully sabotaged. Enemy retaliation/ reinforcements: Delayed Significantly."

"Now that's what I want to hear."

Although that was what she said, it wasn't anywhere near the truth. She didn't really know what she was expecting but she was somewhat dissapointed by Aldrin's response.

However, Sicilia was not given much time to dwell on these thoughts.

For a gunshot soon entered her ears.

The smile that was already on Sicilia's face only grew as she soon deciphered what was going on.

It would seem that phase one of Operation Trojan is finally underway.