245 Baiting the enemy

19th July 1574

As devastating as it was to watch my men fall to the ground never to stand up again, I had to follow my duties as the commanding officer in this battle, and prevent those who were still alive, from sharing the fate of their fallen brothers-in-arms.

"Suppressing fire!'

Being just a few steps away from the fortifications of the marketplace, I didn't need to worry about my order being lost in the chaos of battle. While there was a slight lag between me issuing the next direction and the people actually following it, as soon as the window was opened for the remnants of my first army, I didn't dare to waste even a single second. 

After all, even mark two reaper guns required a time to reload as soon as their magazine would empty out!

"Retreat to the city! I repeat, retreat to the city!"

Even though this marketplace was not a city in any form of meaning, if I was stupid enough to get more precise for the sake of doing so, I doubted I could handle the cost of my men lives that would come bound in the package.

"Sir, you need to get to safety too!"

Only when one of the officers approached me personally, did I realise that from being in the comfort and relative safety of the middle of the ranks, I somehow moved to the very front line of the ongoing battle!

With the front troops already safely hidden behind the fortifications and joining in the shooting fray, only the rear units and I myself remained in the open.

"I don't give a single fuck! Until all of my men get into safety, I'm not leaving!'

With some strange force taking over my mind, I couldn't force my body to move an inch, despite the rational side of my brain whispering to my soul how stupid it was to put myself in the harm's way if there was no tangible benefit of doing so.

Yet the sight of the dying eyes of my men, who were unlucky enough to not drop to the ground before the enemy volley harvested their lives, almost instantly chased this bout of rationality away.

Slap.

Just as I was about to order this officer of mine to retreat as well, I felt a sting on my cheek. Raising my head in disbelief to the place of my head that felt as if it was burning with fire, I looked down on the posture of the officer in front of me, who held his right hand raised to his left side.

"Sir! With all due respect, but if you die here for no reason, then all their deaths, all their efforts, will be fucking meaningless! Sir, I don't know where all those great ideas of yours are coming from, but I saw enough in my life to understand how much of an impact it will have on our lives and country. That's why you can't die he…"

Splatter.

"KILL!"

As terrifying as it was to hear such a powerful shout from the advancing enemy troops, as my eyes were glued to the repulsive internal matter of this bold officer of mine, flowing right down on my shoulder right now, I finally realised what it meant to be in the middle of a fucking war!

"Retreat! City, keep them suppressed!"

In fact, suppressing fire was no different than what those people in the safety of the marketplace's fortification were doing, but with my order in the air, rather than doing it as a side job, all the reaper guns focused on this task alone.

After all, the point of suppressing fire wasn't to kill the enemies, but make them unable and unwilling to even peek out of their hiding spot, so that other unit could fulfil any task they had in almost complete safety!

"MOVE!"

As bad as it felt, I had no other choice but to push the dead body of my loyal subordinate aside, as I jumped towards the fortification. With the sound of my early machine guns spewing fire at the enemies that could dare to even aim their weapons at me, I ran towards the small opening in the fortification line, diving into its safety as soon as I reached the appropriate distance to do so. 

The moment I finally crawled through the hole far enough for my hands to stick on the other side, several hands grabbed my wrists and helped me to get back to the surface.

"What's the situation?"

As costly as this entire manoeuvre was, if I could manage to achieve what I hoped for with it, then even the price of several men of mine, wouldn't be too great. After all, people were dying. That was just how the war worked, so rather than troubling and despairing over the loss of life, I had to make sure to make the best use of the sacrifice my soldiers made!

"Just as planned, it seems that the majority of the enemy troops entered the open field. We estimate that in just two minutes, the majority of their forces will reach the line of mines."

Not bothering to straighten himself up as he reported, one of the common soldiers carefully peeked from behind the cover to confirm the situation on the battlefield.

"Good, keep me informed."

While fighting from within the city, there was no point in reaching any specific place. No matter what would happen, my orders would quickly spread through the entire line, so commanding the entire battle from a random spot of our fortifications was just as good if not better than doing so from the highest point in the area. After all, even if my view would be better, the time that it would take for my orders to reach my men would put all the advantages of the elevated observation spot away.

"Sir, the core of their troops… Advanced past the line of mines!"