Chapter 2: Russ's Retaliation

In the following weeks, the Orientis Kingdom began to build fortifications and trenches that spanned from their borders with the Polska Kingdom to the Russ Empire, as a landlocked country, they had to entrench their borders since they were already surrounded.

After two months of preparation, the Russ got wind of Orientis' plan, and they soon sent 5,000 soldiers to check up on them, however to Orientis Kingdom, the time they had was more than enough as the people themselves cooperated and helped the Royal Army of Orientis to build fortifications around the kingdom.

The scouts that were sent tried to pass the trenches, only to be fired upon by the entrenched soldiers, the scouts did not engage further but retreated to report their findings and the betrayal of Orientis by the decree of Prince Benedictus Lux Sancta.

Benedict managed to convince the Deutsche that he needed to pull back his army to reinforce the Russ against the surprise assault of the Swedes, when, in fact, he only pulled them to reinforce his kingdom for a long battle to come.

Although Orientis didn't have the economic power of a major power, they were still able to produce weapons, munitions, uniforms military kits, and food for their troops in the coming battle.

The army went into overdrive as they recruited young and able men into service, some women also volunteered, not wanting to be left out.

While producing the latest inventions of tanks and planes proved to be harder since it is only exclusive to the major powers, they were still able to make hundreds of them for themselves using their technology and buying patents from other countries.

Rows and lines of soldiers marched towards the soon-to-be frontline and no-man's-land, praying to remain alive and secure decisive victories in the coming defense.

Orientis managed to form a standing army of 500,000 soldiers, although only around 300,000 of them were fully equipped with complete standard military gear, the 200,000 recruits and soldiers who were underequipped were moved to be used as the last choice of defense, using guerilla and urban war tactics to bleed and stall the enemy as much as possible.

Lowlands of Mercia

The lowlands of Mercia was a region located on the western border of the Russian Empire, it was a fertile and lush land used for farming and keeping herds. The town of Mercia is located in the middle of the lowlands, and it's common to see farmers tending to their fields and herds here, however today, the town was almost empty with only a handful of male farmers left to look at their respective houses and property.

The land that was once filled with a lively atmosphere was now replaced by a tense aura, the land was dug to give way to the soldiers and engineers who built the trenches, underground shelling rooms, camps, gun, and machine gun nests, and barbed wires that span for kilometers upon kilometers of land.

Major Evan Brunswick of the 88th Company from the 5th "Herald" Infantry Division was calmly sipping from his coffee mug and sat upon a boulder while gazing at the horizon.

He was part of the established veterans in the Continental War along with his men before they were pulled back home to fight their former allies. His gaze fell on the fresh units that passed and graduated from the boot camps, most of them were young men no older than 21, he guessed.

Each soldier was wearing the standard military uniform and gear, a military green khaki uniform, pants, brown leather boots, as well as a steel helmet with green color.

They also now wear a set of protective armor on their chest and stomach area filled with various pouches to store and hold ammunition, grenades, and tools, the armor vest has layers of steel and thick hard leather and wool to lessen or stop a bullet from penetrating the center mass area of the troops.

By now, most of the troops were equipped with the new standard rifle, the MAS-36 rifle which originated from the Frankish, but their defense minister rejected the MAS-36 design and adopted a rifle similar to their English allies.

The Department of War, however, showed great interest in buying the MAS-36 design made by the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne or simply MAS, to replace the aging refurbished version of Mauser 1871 bolt-action rifle from the Prussian Kingdom and later the Deutsche Empire.

The MAS-36 rifle has only a weight of 3.72 kilograms, a length of 40.16 inches (1.02 m), and a barrel length of 22.64 inches (0.58 m), it uses a 5-round internal box magazine, loaded using 5-round stripper clips, the rifle uses a 7.5×54 mm cartridge.

It has an effective firing range of 400 meters and an iron sight. The MAS-36 design is light and short, unlike its competitor, which makes movement and traversing the trenches easier, the rifle also comes with a bayonet.

Rumors had it that a semi-automatic variant of MAS-36 was to be produced later on, Major Evan nodded in approval with the fresh troops, as he continued to enjoy a short vacation, A whistling sound interrupted his thoughts and without a second thought, he scrambled from his position and enter a bomb shelter near his location.

The rest also scrambled around as they entered their rank's respective bomb shelters, not long after, a barrage of artillery shells landed and impacted their positions, the slow and inexperienced ones screamed in agony as they were caught by the shelling, losing their limbs and gave them instant death in a gory display of violence.

The deafening and merciless artillery barrage continued for a few more minutes, killing and injuring more soldiers and damaging various infrastructures and fortifications.

When the barrage ended, the soldiers emerged from the bomb shelters and grimaced at the scene before them, piles of bodies, limbs, and mangled body parts littered the trenches and surrounding area; the soil turned black from the explosion and smoke filled their noses.

The medical units assigned to their trenches quickly went to work as they helped the injured, transferred them to the field hospitals, and tried their best to save the unfortunate ones, some however were so severely injured without any hope of making it out, so the medics gave them a quick and painless death, not allowing their brothers to suffer further.

Major Evans also emerged from the shelter and quickly rallied his men, "Men! Quickly man your positions, the hordes of Russ will attack at any moment!"

The soldiers followed their orders and quickly traversed the trench into their designated positions, the machine gunners manned their guns, and soldiers lined up in the trenches as they aimed their rifles at their front where the enemies would emerge.

There were also specific sections of the trenches where tanks and anti-tank guns were entrenched and camouflaged to counter enemy armor.

This was the common scene occurring in the entire trench line, with officers barking orders while ensuring coordination and control, soldiers who were nervously sweating from the anticipated attack, and the veterans who treated the recent carnage as another normal day.

~•~

A/N: For clarification, I did some alternation regarding history in this novel, especially in the field of the arms industry because foremost, I'm not an arms expert nor do I have expertise in military and history, but it doesn't stop me from trying a novel focused on such genre, I tried to make a somewhat OG gun and such but ultimately it was similar to what Europeans used in the great war, so I'll just copy and modify them, free to call me lazy, but I know my writing limits, but it doesn't mean I won't challenge myself, after all, it will eventually come as the story progress.