Chapter 117: Strategic Planning

"Colonel Tanaka, this is the surviving senior officer of the 7th Marrina Marine Corps Battalion."

Major Kracauer introduced me to a burly, muscular man dressed in the camouflaged marine uniform of the Marine Corps.

"Lieutenant Charlie Bass," the man declared and shook my hand. "Commanding officer of Company L and the sole senior officer left for the 7th Battalion. As such, command falls to me. Not that I want it."

"Most people wouldn't want it," I replied. Bass grinned.

"You're right." He then turned serious. "The Major here informed me of your plans, and I've to say, that's one hell of a ballsy move."

"Are you against it?"

"Hell, no!" Bass burst out laughing. "I love it! My men all do! We can't express our gratitude enough! To think you'll actually give us a chance to reclaim our homeland from that bastard so-called emperor! We would die for such a chance!"

"I rather you don't die. You're more useful to me alive."

Bass's grin widened and he clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"That statement alone makes you far better than any other officers I've served under."

"…uh, it's just common sense, though…"

"You've no idea how often commanders are willing to expend soldiers' lives just to achieve an objective," Kracauer muttered gloomily. "We've lost so many men that way…all just to achieve whatever Command wants."

"I'm afraid it's the kind of responsibility we've to live with."

We turned to face Regis Gremory, who strolled casually into the room. He nodded at me.

"The paperwork's all done. I've twisted several arms and pushed this operation into going ahead. Of course, the responsibility lies solely in you. If you screw up, you've to suffer the consequences. And that includes any…uh, unforeseen circumstances."

Regis didn't need to say it out loud. I understood even without hearing it. If the humans betrayed me midway, then I would have to take the fall. This was my idea, after all.

Despite the colossal risks, I decided to my faith in them. I wasn't naïve enough to completely trust the humans, though, so I had certain precautions in place.

"All right, get ready. We'll equip the humans with whatever equipment and vehicles we can spare, as a sign of our goodwill. The rest is up to you, Colonel."

"Yes, your majesty!"

I saluted and bowed my head slightly. Then I turned to Kracauer and Bass.

"I'll be counting on you guys. Once you're done with preparations, meet me in the square. I'll be talking to my own men."

"Understood. I hope they don't mind working alongside us."

I smiled cryptically at Kracauer's apprehensive statement.

"I'll talk to them about it."

*

After I called all my men into assembly, the first thing I did after addressing them was to bow my head apologetically.

"…sir?"

"Colonel?"

"What's…going on?"

As a furor ran through my battalion, I slowly raised my head.

"First, allow me to apologize for putting you guys through this."

"T…through what, Colonel?"

Elia was staring at me, confused.

"I've accepted a dangerous mission…"

"That's nothing new," Gio Vanni muttered, then fell silent when everyone else cast a glare in his direction.

I cleared my throat and continued.

"I'm afraid that this time, we'll be working alongside humans."

There was a gasp and a chorus of murmurs rippled through the crowd of soldiers. Most of them didn't know how to react to these news. There was confusion, rage, bitterness, resentment or plain curiosity.

"I know it's not ideal," I spoke up. "But this is a chance to change history. As you all know, our next target is the naval harbor in the Marrina Isles. We'll be trying to capture the naval base and its armada of battleships."

"Uh huh…"

"And for that, we need inside help. Help from the humans who live inside Marrina. That's why we will be working alongside the 7th Marrina Marine Corps Battalion. Assisting them will be the Legnica 82nd regiment. That's a lot of humans."

"But…"

"We can't work with humans!"

"Kill them!"

I raised my hand to silence the protests.

"Please do me a favor…endure all that hatred in your hearts. We're not humans. We're civilized people. We are much better than those murderous breeds. We do not resort to violence and petty crimes. So all I ask of you is tolerance, patience and good behavior. Can you do that?"

Everyone stared at each other. At least there was no major objection…for now. So I decided to push further.

"Let's look at the bigger picture for now. If we succeed in this mission, we'll be rewriting history. I'm sure it's a small price to pay to have to endure the cooperation and presence of humans to capture the world's most formidable and impregnable naval base…to invade a naval harbor that has never fallen in all of Restia's history!"

There was excitement now. It looked like I could appeal to them through this instead. All my soldiers seemed to be eagerly discussing on what sort of fame and prestige we would enjoy if we were to pull this off.

"But what if they backstab us?!" a soldier shouted from the masses. A Helsfortian named Handry, if I remembered correctly.

I smiled, already anticipating that.

"Of course I'm not naïve enough to think they will just go along with whatever we want. And that's where you guys come in."

"…?"

As the soldiers stared at me, puzzled, I spread my arms and gestured to all of them.

"I'll be relying on you all to watch my back. If they show any signs of betrayal, report them to me. Don't take action or matters into your own hands – I don't want you to jeopardize the mission. But if they try to shoot me, then stop them. Don't kill them, but stop them. I doubt they will, though. They have as much to benefit from this mission as we do, if not more. And if we liberate Marrina, they might potentially join the Demonic Alliance, and we can gain a huge asset against the self-proclaimed Emperor of Humanity. Imagine using all of his own armada of battleships, cruisers and destroyers, as well as the soldiers who man them, against him! Would you not relish such irony?"

"…yeah!"

"But in the meantime, I'll be trusting you guys to keep an eye on them, to make sure they don't backstab me, don't betray us. Of course, given how our customs, histories and cultures are different, it might be possible that we misunderstand them. So again, don't take matters into your own hands. Report directly to me and I'll deal with it accordingly."

"Yes, sir!"

This was my goal. I wasn't going to force them into obediently working alongside the humans with an order. That wouldn't work. There was way too much enmity for that. No, instead I had to give and take. Indulge them in their suspicions and made them feel as if I was depending on them for helping me. With this, I had cleverly manipulated them into cooperating with the humans while cautiously keeping an eye on them for me. This way, they would feel that they were needed, and would enthusiastically report to me without taking actions against the humans behind my back because they thought it necessary to prevent betrayal or something.

"Just don't make it too obvious. Don't draw their suspicion by staring at them openly. I mean, it is common sense. If they catch you staring at them, of course they'll be put on their guard. At least put on the appearance of trusting them and believing them, and they might open up to us. That will allow you to keep an eye on them without drawing suspicion and it'll also motivate them to cooperate better with us. Think of the end goal."

"Yes, sir!"

"Understood, sir!"

"For the glory of Morten!"

"For demons!"

I smiled at the positive response.

"Good. I'll be counting on you. Remember, we're going to need these humans to capture the Marrina Isles. Keep them close, and we might find out more about how the enemy works!"

"Yes, sir!"

With that settled, I sighed a breath of relief and moved on to explaining to them our details of the mission.

*

That evening, I introduced my commanders to the human commanders. Major Kracauer and Lieutenant Charlie Bass bowed humbly and shook hands with the demon officers, who were dignified and intelligent enough not to show any open hostility that would jeopardize our mission. They acted as I told them to, smiling in a friendly manner.

"All right…so we've gathered here to plan a route to the Marrina Isles," I told my officers. "Obviously we can't go by the sea."

"Well, I mean, our tanks and APCs can't travel in water anyway," Gio pointed out, wondering why I was stating the obvious. I shook my head.

"Actually, our Cerberus APCs are amphibious. They can submerge underwater and travel by sea if necessary. I'm going to make use of that ability to capture the naval harbor, but how we're going to do it exactly, I still have no idea."

"We'll need to get there and assess the situation," Bass agreed. "But the harbor should be as I remember it. If we strike at night, and then go by this coastal route, we'll be able to use those amphibious vehicles to transport us directly to the battleships."

"And what are we going to do once we get to the battleships?" Benjamin inquired, thinking deeply. I grinned.

"Capture them."

"EH?!"

"I'm not kidding," I replied. Elia, Gio, Daniel and Benjamin's reactions were hilarious, but I kept that to myself. "It's a waste to destroy those battleships…especially if we can capture them and use them against our enemy. It'll be easy to destroy them, but then we'll face an insurmountable task sieging the human's capital later. No, if we have all those battleships, we can easily sail up to the coast of Legnica and bombard the capital with tactical missiles, cruise missiles, gauss cannon batteries and railguns. We'll be able to easily destroy whatever fortresses, defenses or armies they mass against us, gain naval superiority, and establish a beachhead for our invading forces, instead of going through the fortified outposts and gates they have facing the north and west. I know we'll suffer heavy casualties in doing this, but we'll be minimizing casualties in the long run and contributing greatly to the war effort."

I glanced at Kracauer as I said this. He nodded at me.

"We'll help you with the liberation of Legnica. We can't allow that self-proclaimed Emperor of Humanity continue to rule over our kingdoms through tyranny and fear, and force us into an endless war of genocide."

"How do we know…?" Elia began, and then shut up. I didn't even need to glare at her. She remembered my advice. Clearing her throat, she changed her question. "How do we know we can capture these battleships?"

"My men will bear the full responsibility," Bass replied. "We'll infiltrate the battleships by sea and hijack the control rooms. We Marines have been trained for that."

"Yeah," I agreed. "The Marine Corps specialize in amphibious assault and operations, and they are trained to seize or defend naval bases. They also develop tactics, techniques and equipment that are used by amphibious landing forces in coordination with the army and navy. They're the elite infantry, the most well-trained human soldiers and the best of the best…for the humans, anyway."

Bass was staring at me, amazed.

"How did you know all that?!"

We had the United States Marine Corps back in my world, and I devoured a lot of sci-fi military novels that were about Space Marines or the United States Colonial Marine Corps, so I was pretty well-versed in the mythology and history behind them. But obviously I couldn't tell Bass that, so I smiled enigmatically.

"Intelligence."

"…oh. Well, in any case, Colonel Tanaka is right. We specialize in these sort of operations, so we'll take responsibilities for it."

"In any case, we can't let them have all the fun, so I'm also assigning Company L and Company H to raid and capture the other battleships. Depending on the number of ships at the naval base, we might need to split up the infantry accordingly."

"What do we do, sir?"

Daniel raised his hand.

"The tanks will be positioned in the forest." I placed my finger on the holographic map, which displayed a dense, thick forest beside the coast. "The isles are isolated from the mainland, which means it'll take time for them to get reinforcements. Nonetheless, the moment they realize their battleships are getting captured and hijacked, they'll be sending allied human forces to capture them back. This is where you guys come in."

I trailed my finger and planted it on the coast that separated the mainland from the Isles, where the naval harbor was located.

"The moment we confirm that all the battleships and destroyers are captured, the tanks will move out into the open and intercept any naval soldiers trying to get to the naval base. We'll create a killing zone and choke up this point to prevent their reinforcements from getting across. Capture this jetty and defend it at all costs."

There was a jetty with ferries that would transport soldiers from the mainland into the isles. Soldiers from Legnica or other kingdoms…unlike the Marines of Marrina, they probably wouldn't be well-suited to attacking an armored spearhead of tanks.

They would get crushed rather easily. Or so I hoped.

Then again, I had a Hellblade with my company of tanks, so nothing short of a hero would be able to defeat them. The only threat the Marrina Isles could pose was the armada of battleships whose firepower could pulverize entire columns of tanks into smoking wrecks, which was why I was only going to move them out the moment we captured them.

"You said it would be easy to destroy the battleships," Bass spoke up uncertainly. "What did you mean by that?"

I smiled nastily. "I have an Ancient Dragon. All I need to do is summon him, get him to cast Draconic Meteor or an apocalypse-class spell, and I would be able to nuke not just the fleet of battleships but the entire naval harbor from existence."

Bass and Kracauer glanced each other and swallowed apprehensively. They probably detected the warning laced into the undertone of my words. Backstab us, turn the cannons of their newly captured battleships on us, and I would wipe them out. There was no room for betrayal, for I would visit upon them vengeance a hundredfold.

"If you're that powerful, why haven't you gone to destroy the fortress in Havia City yet?" Kracauer asked hesitantly. "You should be able to…"

"Because of your heroes," I replied. "They have defenses against my spells. I might be able to destroy a huge chunk of the armies and fortresses, but there's still at least ten surviving heroes in the capital. I'll be outnumbered. Not to mention such a spell costs me lots of mana. The moment I use it, and the heroes survive, I'll be vulnerable to a counterattack. They would utterly destroy me."

"That makes sense," Bass agreed. Kracauer shuddered.

"The heroes certainly have powers beyond our imagination. Just what sort of monsters are they?"

"They are no heroes," Elia grumbled. I quickly raised a hand to placate them.

"I'm referring to the Evelyn's Chosen, of course."

"No, they're right," Bass growled. "Even though those so-called heroes helped us in the first phase of the war, they backstabbed us and betrayed us. Killed our kings and queens and ursurped the throne. Forcibly married all our princesses into a gigantic harem. Enslaved our population and turned them into obedient slaves. What sort of heroes do that?! They're no heroes…they're villains."

"There's still the Iron Knights, who are fighting on your side."

"Oh, right." Kracauer nodded. "We appreciate what they've done for us. It'll be an honor to fight alongside them again."

"Speaking of which…"

I opened up a holographic window. Aoyama Aoi's face appeared on the screen.

"Tanaka-kun," he addressed me. "It's been a while."

"How are you guys?" I asked. "I heard you were beaten pretty badly by Kobayashi and his cronies."

Aoyama winced at that.

"Pretty well, considering. I've healed everybody with my healing spells, so there shouldn't be any issues." He narrowed his eyes. "Did you call us to…express your concern? If so, thank you."

I could detect the sarcasm in his tone. He was more certain that I called them to gloat over them or something.

"No, actually…I have a favor to ask."

"…a favor?"

"Yeah. You're a Witch Doctor, right? You specialize in curses and all that."

Aoyama nodded. "Yes. What about it? You need me to curse somebody?"

"The direct opposite." I glanced at Bass and Kracauer, who were waiting patiently. "Can you remove curses? You know…Kobayashi's Kingly Disposition and how he uses it to enslave humans into becoming his zealous followers? How he brainwashes and indoctrintates them?"

"…ah." Aoyama blinked and considered. "Now that you've mentioned it, it never occurred to me. I might be able to. Give me a few days and I'll find out."

I nodded. "Let me know if you figure something out."

"Sure thing. I'll get Hoshizaki-san to bring me over when I'm done, and I'll lift the curse from whoever you need me to…"

"Actually…I need you to lift it from an entire population."

Aoyama grimaced. "That's…quite the difficult task. But I'll see what I can do. I'll let you kow."

"Thanks."

The hologram winked off and I turned back to my commanders with a grin.

"If Aoyama succeeds, we'll be able to turn the population of Marrina Isles to our side. Not only will we liberate them from Kobayashi's tyranny, we might be able to persuade us to help us save Legnica from Kobayashi once and for all."

"…so how do we get to the Marrina Isles?"

At Daniel's question, I turned to Bass, who stepped forward to take over the holographic map.

"We'll be able to avoid major patrol routes and bastions by going through the forests. My men have been trained to march on foot to traverse such difficult terrain…"

"No need for that. We have all-terrain APCs. They'll be able to move through the forest."

"Roger that." Bass nodded. "The forest should keep us out of visibility, and besides, there's no settlements near the forest. Just a garrison from the kingdom of Heldor. They'll be the first to respond and send reinforcements. But they're too distant to notice a force moving through the forest…here."

He traced his finger through the southern part of the forest. I studied it and nodded.

"So we're taking the long way, huh?"

"We've no choice…the other routes will bring us through the Heldor garrison or place us right in the open where everyone can see us."

"Great. Then we'll do that. Good thing we have APCs. That will cut our traveling time by a lot."

I sighed, scrutinizing the map. The route was not ideal, and I was certain we would end up being delayed a lot, but it was better than ebing caught before we could even commence the mission.

"Upon reaching the coast, we'll camp inside the forest here. Obviously you do not want to come out of the cover of the forest or the battleships will bombard us to oblivion."

"Understood. Then we'll set up camp in here and send scouts ahead to keep an eye on the naval harbor."

I agreed with Bass's assessment.

"How are we supposed to move out to hijack the ships then?" Elia wanted to know.

Bass scanned the map for a moment before he finally settled on a single location. He placed his finger on a small lagoon.

"This is a mangrove swamp, surrounded by trees. Perfect for cover."

"We can submerge our Cerberus APCs in there and then swim underwater all the way until the ships," I suggested. Bass nodded. I was getting excited, but then I suddenly remembered something. "Um, but won't they be able to detect us on sonar?"

Everyone stared at me.

"Uh…what's sonar, sir?"

"Never mind." I shook my head. "I was thinking detection magic or something."

"Detection magic…hmm…there would probably be mages on board, but I don't think they will cast detection magic unless they need to, or unless they're looking for something. Even if they did, they might mistake us for whales or sea monsters."

Bass's information was reassuring.

"Even if they do, as long as we stay submerged, they probably would have no way of attacking us."

"So they don't have torpedoes?"

Everyone stared at me again. I tried again.

"Weapons that can shoot underwater."

"They have harpoons, but I doubt they will be able to turn their guass cannon turrets downward or direct their missile launchers underwater."

"That's good." I nodded and looked at everyone determinedly. "Let's go with that then."

"Yes, sir!"

*

The next day, we gathered in the plaza, all prepared and loaded up. We had all our weapons and gear stored in the tanks and APCs – and true to his word, Regis had procured a new convoy of Cerberus APCs to transport the human troops.

Said human armies were standing in front of me right now. They were on either side of my core battalion, who stood straight at attention to impress upon the humans their superiority. I was glad to see that my men were taking my advice and not trying to make their suspicions too obvious. They were, as I told them to, doing their best to put on an appearance of trusting the humans, and not too blatantly doubting them.

"All right. As you all know, we'll be heading to the Marrina Isles to capture the Marrina naval base. I know it's a daunting task, but that's why we've the help of these human regiments beside us. I know you probably aren't used to working together, and I won't be unreasonable enough to ask you to trust each other or quell your hatred and resentment or whatever, but I'll ask you to at least cooperate for this mission. This mission is far more important than any of our petty grievances. The fate of Morten, and for the humans, the fate of their home kingdoms, lies on our shoulders. Do not let your personal feelings get in the way of this mission!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Great. Then let's load up!"

My men then turned away and began marching to their respective APCs, or in Daniel and his company's case, their tanks. I watched over them for a few minutes, the brigade of over ten thousand men and demons moving across the plaza to the countless armored vehicles that awaited them. It reminded me of my time back on Earth when I was an Imperial Guard player. I was an armored company player who made use of a lot of tanks, and tried to cram my infantry into Valkyrie assault carriers and Chimera Armored Personnel Carriers, but the core of my army revolved around my Leman Russ tanks because they were my favorite units on the table. Tanks were the way to go. Oh, and the Shadowsword I had was the centerpiece of my army, a model around which I built my armored Brigade. Though it wasn't so much an armored Brigade because it included a lot of infantry, surprisingly enough. I didn't have a choice. If I wanted the Command Points, I had to include infantry for a Battalion or Brigade Detachment because a Spearhead Detachment only netted me one Command Point, and the Super-heavy Auxiliary Detachment gave no Command Benefits at all…

"…sir?"

"Oh, sorry. I was spacing out for a second."

I shook my head when Jurgen called out to me, and quickly followed my aide to the Hellblade. The Savior of Moria was waiting for me, its engines humming thunderously at the center of the armored column.

Man, we look more like Armageddon Steel Legion or one of the mechanized infantry regiments than an actual tank regiment like my homebrewed Draconian Armored Defenders. And I even modeled my army after the Cadian Regimental Doctrine…well, at least we have lots of plasma weapons, especially my tanks and heavy infantry.

"So where are we going?"

Jurgen was at the wheel, as usual. I stared at him.

"Huh? Didn't I tell you yesterday? We're going to Marrina Isles."

"Oh…right. By the forest route, right?"

"That's right."

The drivers were briefed on the route shortly after the commanders' meeting. They were still somewhat unsure, but we provided them with the route indicated on the holographic map.

"This is going to take a while…"

"A few days," I agreed. Just in time for Aoyama to appear with whatever spell or potion he needed to lift the Kingly Disposition effect from the Marrina masses. "Take your time. Be careful. Don't be reckless."

"Roger that, sir."

Right before we moved out, though, I received a message over the vox.

"Colonel Tomoyuki…a moment please."

"…Lilith-san?!"

My jaw dropped when I heard the familiar voice.

"Yes." A holographic image of Lilith appeared on my pict-screen, showing that she was just outside The Savior of Moria. "I'll be coming with you on this mission."

"EH?!"

Lilith giggled when she saw my stunned reaction. Placing a finger on her lips, she smiled mysteriously.

"You didn't think I'll let you have all the fun of creating history to yourself, did you?"