CH 101

Retreating to the Enemy Headquarters 3

“The troops’ deployment is proceeding as planned…..that Hokuto Kisei is likely alone. All I have to do is keep the pressure on him until he’s exhausted.”

Muttered Diaroze inside of the cockpit of her beloved striker, [Zentis]. In front of her is a sub-monitor displaying the tactical map.

“I placed the Imperial Knights as our vanguard. No matter how much of a monster he is, with our elites as his opponents he should be kept busy for a while. If I keep sending in reinforcements then……”

“Reporting! The Imperial Knights appeared to have been wiped out, Your Highness!”

Suddenly, the tense voice of her subordinate came through her earpiece. In response to the shocking report, Diaroze almost slipped off her seat.

“W, Wiped out!? He wiped out 24 [Lenions]……!? The battle has just begun right!!”

“It seems that they were all defeated by the 2 strikers that infiltrated our parameter earlier. The battle is still ongoing at the frontline, Your Highness…..”

“O, Only two!?”

This is not the question of Kill Ratio. That man can fight against a force dozens of times larger than his own!?

Thought Diaroze as cold sweat ran down her back.

“EEII, just keep him surrounded and concentrate your attack on him. It doesn’t matter if there is some damage to our side, keep him there as long as possible. If you don’t push forward then the damage to our side will be mini–……”

“Y, Your Highness, the enemy Zeniths have begun to charge straight toward the direction of our headquarters! Our units at the frontline are trying to stop them but…….”

“W, Why!? Why are they coming this way!? Normally they should be escorting their main force right……”

Diaroze held her head. The original plan was to keep the pressure on Kisei to exhaust and isolate him before making an all-out attack. The situation has been going in an unexpected direction since the start of the operation.

“C, Call an artillery strike on his position! Just keep it raining on him so he can’t advance forward!”

“Th, they are in a melee over there, Your Highness!? Are you intending to bombard our allies as well!?”

“N, No, that would be too much……”

Even Diaroze hesitated when it came to such a thing. Usually, there are many troops of aristocratic houses on the frontline. If she calls an artillery strike on them, it would raise a lot of problems for her even with her position as the to-be-empress.

“Tell the frontline troops to provide support fire for our soldiers in melee and have them fall back. Launch the artillery strike after we cleared our allies out of the area.”

In the end, Diaroze decided to be reasonable. The frontline will be using mid-sized rocket launchers and fieldguns to buy time for the soldiers to withdraw before bombarding the enemy.

The highly trained Noredians troops carried her order out swiftly and about 3 minutes later, the units on the frontline had withdrawn out of the artillery range.

“Good, commence fire!”

At her command, the mobile artillery regiments open fire. Thunderous sounds of the bombardment can be heard from a distance and shockwaves even shook the [Zentis]’s cockpit a little. The area is currently being bombarded by 28cm shells. Even if she is currently quite a distance away from the bombarded area, the sounds of explosions are still extremely loud.

“Report!”

Diaroze asked for a report with a frown. Even if the artillery strike did not take him down, it would be nice if it damages the limbs of his striker. All she needs to do is send another wave of her soldiers in to finish the job.

“N, Negative Your Highness. The shells were intercepted! The strike was ineffective! I repeat, Ineffective!”

“How is that even possible!?”

Diaroze was fuming at such unreasonableness but for Kisei who can easily intercept blaster beams that travel at almost lightspeed, those shells almost looked to him like non-moving targets. Moreover, it is quite easy for him to just intercept the shells that are likely to hit him and leave the other alone.

“P, prepare the second volley.”

“Negative. Our observation team has lost sight of them……”

It is difficult to locate their enemy in a dense forest like this. Moreover, Kisei is piloting a Zenith-Type that has excellent mobility. It’s actually simple for him to use the low-visibility environment after the artillery strike to conceal himself.

“Negative, negative, all you say since earlier were negative! Can’t you say something else you stupid dogs!”

Diaroze stomped the cockpit floor in frustration. Her plans were all rendered ineffective and her troops suffered terrible damage. Certainly, this is quite unreasonable.

That being said, this may have been doomed to happen from the moment she chose such a dense forest to intercept the Calencian army. Still, she set up a defensive line here to intercept the enemy with as little damage to her army as possible.

“Aneue, please leave this place to me.”

Then, a communication came in from Valentina.

“What!?”

“Please lend me the [Heavenly Blade]. I will definitely stop that mercenary here.”

Valentina offered so in a confident voice. However, Diaroze’s face turns blue as she shakes her head sideways.

“No way, No way! What can the likes of you do, you will only waste Tersis on a fool errand!”

The [Heavenly Blade], Tersis was literally tossed around without being able to do anything merely a few hours ago. Valentina is unaware of this since Diaroze has issued a gag order to prevent the news from affecting morale.

‘She must be confident that everything will be okay if she has Tersis with her’ Thinking so, Diaroze heaved a heavy sigh.

“If you lose twice to the same person…….no, to the same [Man], your measly honor will be destroyed you know. Listen to your sister’s advice and stay out of this. The chance will eventually come, I will let you have your share as well.”

“……as you command.”

Valentina reluctantly obeyed her command.

Then with another sigh, Diaroze glared at the tactical map.

“For now I have to stop their advance. If they reach this place then all my plans would turn to waste……”

Unfortunately for Diaroze, her fear would be realized in less than an hour.