Hell Lies Ahead

"Now… what did you say?"

Lieutenant General Henri de Dubois, commander of the Republic's 2nd Army Corps, doubted his own ears. With trembling hands, he crumpled the situation report his staff officer had handed him.

"The vanguard… was annihilated? They're retreating?"

"…That is correct, Your Excellency. The lead armored battalion of the 4th Armored Division has been rendered combat-ineffective, while the infantry regiment that entered afterward has suffered over forty percent casualties and its chain of command has collapsed. The vanguard has effectively disintegrated."

Henri let out a hollow laugh.

"The enemy was only a single infantry brigade. A ramshackle mob with an improvised defensive line and hardly any heavy weapons! And yet our elite armored force has been reduced to scrap, while an entire infantry regiment was chewed up in a night battle in the city?"

"I-I know it sounds like an excuse, but the enemy's response was completely irrational."

The intelligence officer continued his report, cold sweat beading his brow.

"First, they fired anti-aircraft guns horizontally. Their 88mm armor-piercing shells punched through the tanks' frontal armor like paper."

"Madmen… using an expensive anti-aircraft gun like that?"...