Volume 1 (RE) Chapter 9: Opening the Gates

AU: Ugh. I just finished my APs but now I have finals all through next week. Going to be hell. This is going to affect my chapter speed, I apologize in advance.

Califia, Leon Empire

Continent of Esmeralda

Inside the huge metropolis of Califia a conference was being held inside of the Grand-Halifia, the central palace. With a population of four million people, this was no means a small city but the technological and political center of the Alliance of Central Nations which was led by Empress Carla of the Leon Empire who hosted the conference.

Held one every half year but this conference was held because of a debate over the addition of a southern nation to their roster. Many southern-most members favored allowing this motion but more staunch conservative northern nations were against it.

"The Kingdom of Epruilon is no longer run by those who favor the Bay Alliance! This is a great opportunity to extend our reach to the Abysmal Bay now that the leadership is favorable!."

This was the Shalan of the Emirate of Perseus, Kishme II who was speaking. He was the leading member of the Alliance of Central Nations which favored the admittance of the Kingdom of Epruilon. He had helped to finance the Junta which explains his stance.

His allies in the conference nodded their heads in approval.

From a chair three spots from Kishme II Zane Wallace was there was a representative from the Kingdom of Epruilon. He was struggling to to maintain his composition as everyone around him debated how relevant his nation was.

He was a very boring conference for Zane. He could feel the gazes from everyone in the conference room.

"Shouldn't we hear the representative from the Kingdom of Epruilon pitch his stance?"

After this remark the Shalan waved towards Zane.

Tch

Zane reluctantly stood up and cleared his throat.

"Greetings esteemed members of the Alliance of Central Nations. I am Zane Wallace, 3rd prince of the Kingdom of Epruilon. You all know about our recent civil war which replaced the Crown faction with the Junta faction. We in the Junta faction do not favor the Bay Alliance as the old regime. I am happy to announce the discovery of new land to the south of our border which were not found before. With this new acquisition of territory our Kingdom will have much more national power than before. Our heroes have made gains in technological sectors making our magical machines much better then the previous generation."

Zane sat down after he finished with a sigh.

The members of the alliance around him started chatting amongst themselves which to Zane was a good sign.

Suddenly from the far right of Zane at the head of the long table the Empress sat on a smaller version of her usual throne.

"Silence."

The Empress raised her right hand to signal the other alliance members.

The room quieted very quickly.

"Well Prince Wallace, how would this benefit the alliance? What do you bring to the central nations?"

Zane from his seat sat straight up. This was his moment to prove his worth.

"Well as I mentioned before we have discovered new lands to our south. However these lands have not been explored before so there is the chance for the discovery or new sources of metals and magical crystals. Also since this land is close to the mouth of the Abysmal Bay it would restrict traffic and be a source of taxation."

After this explanation Zane started to sweat. It was one thing to speak directly to an opposing member or an 'ally' like Kishme II but it was another to speak to the Empress. Her long bright red hair was straight and flowed behind her. She wore not fancy clothes but heavy black armor with the muscles to supplement it. A giant greatsword leaned on the right hand rest of her throne.

An attendant leaned over and whispered in her ear. She cocked her head towards him to listen.

After the attendant finished speaking the Empress turned back to Zane.

"I suppose that having control of the mouth of the bay is essential in cornering the Bay Alliance. I favor allowing the entry of the Kingdom into the Alliance of Central Nations."

She raised her right hand to signal her support.

Around the room those who opposed paled in the face and reluctantly raised their hands. Those who supported the entry beamed and enthusiastically raised their hands.

The Empress glanced around the room.

"Alright. We all agree. Welcome representative of the Kingdom of Epruilon, welcome to the Alliance."

_________________________

Outskirts of Nantes, France

The sounds of boots hitting the ground echoed through the dense forest on the border of the new land.

The forms of hundreds of thousands of infantry with all their heavy equipment trudged forward. In front of them were hundreds of thousands more of summoned slaves.

The 200,000 man strong main army divided into four armies under four generals. General Beatrix, general Stein, general Venix and general Nelson.

All four had 20,000 logistical personnel assigned to each with 300,000 summoned slaves each.

Heavy equipment included cannons, ballista, catapults and magical armored turtles (AU: mistaken as tanks in the previous chapter). This was the largest concentration of forces ever amassed by the Kingdom of Epruilon. 200,000 regulars, 1.2 million slaves plus 80,000 other personnel.

Marshal Gerald sat on his horse. He was in command of the whole army as they advanced into the new territory. His staff carried magical communication equipment with them which would be used to coordinate with the armies.

"This damn forest. Why is it so damn thick and hard to navigate? If we get ambushed here its all over!"

His aide fished into his bag and pulled out a thin gold-encrusted rod. A telescope enhanced with optical magic.

Marshal Gerald took the telescope and put it to his eye.

"Ooo, I see light. Continue the march, we are almost out."

The entire grand army of 1.5 million continued to march to the light permeating from the forest.

The vanguard of the army consisting of summoned slaves first entered the light into a huge open field.

The marshal soon excited the forest and once more stared through the telescope.

"What the hell?"

In front of him as far as the eye can see was a huge structure. Hills, grey bumps and black lines squiggled all round the structure.

"A wall?"

"Sir marshal, I think its a wall."

The vanguard was ordered to stop by the a control mage who was leading the 3rd summoned army.

The marshal's staff quickly set up a tent for the marshal who using set up equipment gave the order to set up camp.

Within three hours a large camp was set up in a large square, each army took a corner. The 1st army under general Venix to the north, 3rd army under general Beatrix to the east, general Stein with the 4th army to the south and general Nelson with the 2nd army to the west.

In the center was the marshal's tent.

The summoned slaves lived on the outside of the respective army's encampment and were in worse quality than the regular army. Each regular soldier received full equipment and a large cloth which combined with five other men formed a large tent. Each summon received a small half of a two-man tent (AU: see American Civil War army tents).

The logistic personnel split up to set up latrines, kitchens, washrooms and storage dumps. Cannons and heavy artillery were dug around the outskirts of the main camp to protect against attack.

Outside the marshal's tent a strange brown device was being activated. About two meters wide on all sides by three meters tall, this boxy device had a spinning rod on its top.

"What is this?"

The marshal exited the tent and watched several personnel activate the device.

"Sir marshal, this is a 'magical radar' developed by our heroes. It can detect the magical pulse of all things within five km (AU: I will not bother creating a new set of measurements. Just using the metric system)."

"Oh ho, what a splendid invention! We can rest easy knowing that we can detect enemies from so far away!"

Suddenly a man ran up to the marshal and kneeled.

"All of the generals request a meeting!"

"Alright, call them to the main tent."

Within another hour the generals and higher ranked officers filtered into the main tent. They gathered around a small round table with a black square device attached to the brown 'magical radar' in the center. Thick grey cables attached to the black square leading outside to the radar.

"Here."

The marshal pointed at a large line of red dots about 4.5km from their location. Beyond the wall of red dots were even more dots but more scattered.

"Sir, what are these dots back here?"

General Venix pointed to a cluster of red dots which were very close to one another. Usually this would display in a cannon formation.

General Venix was a short man with greying brown hair. Short and thin, he looked like a napoleon figure. Besides him was general Nelson, a taller but more fat man with a face with a very obvious double chin.

"Impossible. This is our land, who would dare land here first?"

He stroked a light brown moustache while the marshal stroked his goatee. This was very troubling.

"May I inquire?"

"Go ahead general Stein."

"Well, what exactly does this 'magical radar' track?"

The marshal paused. He didn't really know either.

The radar technician from earlier entered the tent and butted into the conversation.

"Excuse me for interrupting, may I answer."

"Yes please, go ahead."

"Well then, as we all know every element in this world has a specific magical signal. According to studies done by the Alliance this is true with gunpowder. This is the radar mark II built by Miss May tracks the natural magical signal given off by gunpowder of high concentration. See here we are here."

The technician pointed to their camp.

"Wait. Why is there so many red dots to our east?"

He looked up to the astonished faces of the high ranking officers. The realization of what this meant dawned on every person.

"Are you sure this radar tracks high concentrations of gunpowder?"

"Yes. Gunpowder is the only substance which we can track currently due to its unique magical signal. Everything else emits signals which are too similar."

The paling of every member of the high command spoke volumes.

"There is no time. They are probably the Empire of Kursk, it makes sense because they would have crossed on the other side of the new land. We are exposed, we must move."

The marshal ushered everyone of of the tent. They scrambled to assemble their troops.

They disassembled the camp, they would rebuild it within 2km of the wall.

The four armies marched forward with the vanguard in front. The collars prevented any attempts at escape.

They started approaching the 3km mark which was near a river when the marshal got upsetting news.

"Sir, the vanguard uncovered bridges on the river."

"Shit."

Because of the presence of other people it was dangerous to continue on.

"Send the order, make camp. Also man the bridge with regulars, not summons."

"Yes sir."

His aide ran off to inform the generals.

All the armies started reconstructing the camp at the bridge.

________________

Nantes, France

Inside the castle an emergency meeting is being conducted. Every high ranking officer, the royals and Wilhelm sat in a room full of folding chairs facing a projector.

An oberst (colonel) stood by the projector and passed photographs through it.

"Attention please! Three hours ago a scout Heinkel 111 passed over the no go zone of 5km outside of the Atlantikwall and spotted huge force."

He changed the image to a larger zoomed version.

"Low estimates are about 600,000 and the high estimate is around 1.5 million unknowns. We were not able to get close to discern nationality but judging from where they came from they are Epruilon forces. The force which landed unsuccessfully in Stavanger Norway the other day was also determined to be from the Kingdom of Epruilon."

Günther von Kluge stood up and shouted while waving his arms.

"The bastards attacked us once already! Will we allow another Stavanger happen here in France? Nay! Mein Kaiser, please give the order to a preemptive strike."

All heads turned to Wilhelm who was sitting with Andrew to his left and Adriana to his right.

He glanced at both royals who were now listening for Wilhelm's order to kill their people.

"We can't communicate with them unless I do it. That requires getting myself within a close range."

"No! You cannot get that close to the enemy!"

"Hm, instead lets try to intimidate them. Fire artillery at the river in front of their camp they set up. Lets hope that this makes them run."

"I agree. Send the order to the artillery regiment."

At the word artillery Andrew perked his ears. Wilhelm noticed this in which he turned to his left.

"You want to go and see the artillery as well? (AU: I am changing Andrew's age back to his original 15 years. It doesn't make sense to be 18, he would have been killed in a power struggle already. Also he is the 4th prince. Making him 18 makes no sense).

He nodded.

Wilhelm beckoned to Kluge who closed his eyes and nodded.

"Go with the generalfeldmarschall. He will guide you to our cannons. Bring marshal Steinbeck with you."

"Yes brother-in-law."

Wilhelm noticed the formal attitude, he guessed that it was justified. It was only a few days before when he engaged his sister and he was nervous around him.

Wilhelm watched Andrew and the generalfeldmarschall leave to head to the artillery line.

"Sir, just an artillery attack?"

General Beck was questioning him about their situation.

"I already contacted general Rommel and the 7th Panzer Division. They are heading from Paris to here in about a day."

"Good work. Its always good to have reinforcements inbound. Set the Empire to high alert 2, tell Spierrle to increase air patrols. Have Oberbefehlshaber der Marine Raeder bring the 1st fleet on sortie. We will need air cover so add the Graf Zeppelin to this fleet as well as the Jade. And yes, only artillery. Rocket launchers and mortars are not accurate enough to cause enough panic."

These were the only aircraft carriers which were completed in Wilhelm's original timeline. However in the WoIL game before the reincarnation he had built five carriers, all Graf Zeppelin class 1936 carriers. The Graf Zeppelin, Flugzeugträger B, Elbe, Jade and Weser were all completed even if they were originally names for other carrier projects.

"Affirmative. We have three battalions of mechanized infantry and five battalions of motorized infantry ready to storm the enemy position. A regiment of Tigers have arrived from Brest, Brittany"

"Have them on standby. If needed planes can be launched from the Nantes airfield. Brest also has bombers on standby. Have Spierrle on alert."

"Jawohl."

General Beck ran to his subordinates to relay orders while Wilhelm walked to a stairwell behind a door. He wanted to get a good look of the battle.

He exited the building followed by his KST Nantes guards which awaited him outside.

"Sir where to?"

The chauffeur opened the door for Wilhelm before circling around the car to the driver's side. (AU: they drive on the right side, the driver sits on the left side like in the US).

"The wall, head to the wall."

"What?"

Wilhelm glared at the chauffeur who quickly turned back to the steering wheel. He took a small radio mic from the dashboard and relayed the orders to the other two cars in the convoy.

The convoy was joined by two motorcycles at the gate of the castle. They drove through the city to the main staging area of the 12th garrison battalion which protected the city and surrounding lands.

The convoy transitioned from paved ground to more unfinished gravel as they approached a lightly populated forest. Cut in a circle inside the forest, the artillery in the rear were stationed here using the forest as a shield.

The convoy passed this forest and continued to the main headquarters of the battalion which was stationed near a hill overlooking the beach next to the port of Nantes.

Outside the headquarters the commanding officer met Wilhelm outside. As the convoy approached the commander and his aides saluted using the new salute.

Wilhelm saluted the American way. He is still uncomfortable with the new salute since it has practical limitations in the field such as when a soldier loses that arm, how do they salute? It was also more effort to preform than a standard salute.

"Hauptmann (captain), drop using the new salute. Use the standard one."

"Ah, yes sir."

It didn't feel right to Wilhelm, someone originally from the US, to not see a standard salute (AU: tell me the real name, I can't find it).

The fixed their salute and Wilhelm returned it from his backseat of the Mercedes-Benz 770.

On top of the hill was an observation post with a FuMG 450 FREYA medium radar surrounded with three 8-meter Wurzburg C light radar systems. A system of searchlights idled in their sandbag forts nearby. Underground cables attached it to a bunker under the headquarters where the radar technicians operated it.

Wilhelm was led to the radar room where the usual tasks were being conducted. The Wurzburg C could not accurately detect aircraft but gave close enough locations for flak cannons and searchlights to be directed to incoming threats.

As a World War II nerd Wilhelm knew of this setback of the radar. He didn't know how to make them better but he knew that it was possible. The medium radar was of much use to help against British jamming as it operated on different frequencies of 125 MHz.

"How is the FREYA system?"

"Mein Kaiser, the FREYA radar system is the best we have. Not only can it create 'islands' of waves for our smaller radars but it can detect targets at 200 km."

The hauptmann was very pleased to boast about his radars. Only several hundred FuMG 450 were available and they had gotten their hands on one of them.

"Well I can see you are pleased with the radar. As you should have been notified there is a large unknown army about 3km from the Nantes Atlantikwall gate. We will be firing a warning barrage at the river #2. Be on high alert until further notice."

"Jawohl!"

The hauptmann walked back to his post of observing the radars with his technicians.

Wilhelm was just about to leave when a cry rose from the technicians.

"Alert central command! Airwaves incoming!"

Wilhelm rushed back to the radar room and burst through the door, military cap falling off.

"What!? Enemy air inbound? Hauptmann, connect me to Kluge of the artillery now!"

"What? Yes, of course."

He changed his direction and grabbed a phone from the wall and hit a red button which hot signaled to the command.

"Here!"

He thrusted the phone to Wilhelm who took it.

"Hello? Connect me to generalfeldmarschall Kluge in the camp of 12th artillery regiment!"

"Yes sir."

A small pause ensued when Wilhelm waited for the connection. He could hear the chaos behind him as the radar technicians were directing other units.

"Hello?"

"Hello generalfeldmarschall Kluge, this is Wilhelm. Evacuate the artillery camp with Andrew and head to the central command. Enemy aircraft signals detected."

"What? Okay but how do you know that? Wait, are you in the radar station? Sir! Thats on the frontlines! You can't be there!"

"Trust me! I am fine! Tell the artillery regiment to fire immediately. I will work with technicians here to determine the threat of the air contacts."

"Right away."

He hung up and Wilhelm put the phone on the receiver.

"Hauptmann, can you determine if they are friendly?"

"Negative sir, the observation post confirmed that they are not planes but giant grey birds of sorts. Radar has determined that 150 or so of these things are coming to us."

Another technician who was using another phone piped up.

"Reports from the front! The unknown army is starting to move. Artillery units are requesting permission to fire."

Wilhelm started to feel overwhelmed. Every person was turning to him, the highest ranking unqualified person to make a momentous decision. He knew what to do even if meant killing thousands. This was war, they already attacked first in Norway. Now France was under invasion. This will not be tolerated.

"Go, fire away. Tell the garrisons to man their stations and remain there. Put the entire Empire on high alert."

The hauptmann and technician gulped. This was now a war in a new world.

"Permission granted, by his grace the Kaiser."