Empires Backline

"Supreme Commander! Supreme Commander!"

The shouting was distant, but I slowly brought myself back to the world, and my eyes fluttered open. A blue Bunny-kin was huffing and puffing as a messenger. They had little use on the battlefield as a D rank, but in-person messages were important. "What is it?" I asked as I got up from my meditation. My body and mind were finished not long ago from resyncing with myself. I was starting to fall into the depths of restoring my mana to its peak, but I was not far off at this point.

"Yes?" I replied, opening my eyes.

"Supreme Commander, The Elders, and War Chief request your presence for a meeting. Your Mother seems to have added something of a small note to me."

I took the note and opened it, noting the seal. It simply read: I found your Sister. We will be discussing it in the meeting."

That was fast. It made me wonder if, after being lost in the forest, my mother came up with something to find us if we got lost. It would not be good if she could track us using some mana signature, as others would be able to do the same. That did not matter, though, at this moment. After dismissing the messenger, I opened a rift to where I knew the wall to the closest end of the West trenches. I leaped and rifted to the ground, letting the momentum catapult me into the air. I took a deep breath, and an old feeling of Parkour around the school hit me. That brief moment of air was on my skin, and I landed in the dirt of the trenches. 

As soon as there was rainfall, this would turn to mud, and things would change. But it was harvest season, and it was drier right now, although it still had some moisture in it. Still, the seasons were mild on the continent, and only north of the dwarves did it get cold enough to snow. I heard the Theocracy is bad for winter, but I moved with purpose into the trenches. I was sure someone noticed my movement, but I cared. 

This was not a modern battlefield, and the blast of spells hit my ears every couple of moments. The Wizards were rotating in and out of combat in order to keep pressure on the other camp. The Empire had their camp a kilometer or two away from the Trenches, now knowing we had more protection than them. Still, I was not about to give away the location of our headquarters, so I came in from a distance and had to speed walk a couple of kilometers and into the depths of the largest meeting area in the trenches. 

Inside, I saw my Mother and all of the Elders. Isabelle was sitting with the rest of them, and my Sister was the only one standing in the room. "Ah, Supreme Commander, we finally have some new information, and your Mother insisted you get to hear," Elder Redscale said, and I noticed many of the Elders giving him the stink eye. It seems that the Elders might not be happy with the current state of affairs.

"Ah, great. I just wanted to say that it was a good defensive battle yesterday, War Chief. I watched from the wall; if you do not mind a little Critique though," I said, jabbing at Red scale, "The Empire is better organized than our main forces. Outside of the trenches, where we make battle more individualized, we are weaker than them. That is all," I told her and bowed, "What you do with that information is up to you, War Chief; again, it's an Excellent battle, and the Empires forces are learning how dangerous us Beast-kin are when we bear our fangs."

I could see the Redscale was pissed about that, but Isabelle nodded, "Thank you for the advice; it was something that I noticed when the Empire turned almost in unison during the retreat as a single unit almost. It took our people unprepared, and even in our retreat, it was not as neat as theirs. It clarifies the main reasons why what happened yesterday did happen." Isabelle replied, and I smiled genuinely, happy about her response.

Elder Redscale was pissed, and I wanted to sneer at him. How dare he care more about politics at this point? We were at War! This was not a battle between factions, but it seemed that it did not matter to him. At least Isabelle was listening to me. She was a smart woman, it seemed, and I moved into a chair and sat down as my sister stood with no emotion on her face.

"Sister, Good to see you in good health; we have been wondering where you have been," I said, and Elder Redscale sneered.

"Yes, please enlighten us," Elder Redscale said, and I realized that things might get petty in this room.

"Yes, My mother found me as I returned from the Capital, or the more Common name, the City of Boats. What I discovered while there is something that I find very disconcerting. After a week of traveling there and getting inside, I have a couple of contacts in the Empire's military, and we have bad news. I had to come back to notify you personally. They have been sending reinforcements to the front of the battle. Two hundred thousand of the Empire's Finest soldiers are coming. Three more A rankers are on the way, adding to an unknown amount on the front." 

My face turned grim, as did all the Elders. I pursed my lips and leaned back. "There is more."

"Yes, I spent time looking into the information and got information on the A rankers coming and if this is all. The answers to these questions are important. The answer to the first is I discovered the Firewalker is coming but that is all." I nodded, as did everyone else. The Firewalker was one of the few A rankers we had information on. A commoner that grew in war to the top. A swordsman used Fire to increase their capabilities, but his fire control was more powerful than his sword techniques. I honestly was surprised he was not already at the front. "The rest I have my people trying to find out discreetly. The problem is that with the ongoing war, I will need to be gone for a while as I do not have a clear line of communication at this point. The Empire has locked down all other forms of communication under Martial law. Now, I have good news." 

We all listened, and my sister took a deep breath. "We have five weeks before those forces get here. They are still equipping a large number of their forces, and it seems that they went through all their warehouses on enchanted gear, arming the men and women before us on this battlefront. They had been stockpiling for over a decade but the new Armor will not be enchanted. The next good news is about the potions you brought, Supreme Commander. The battle slaves are coming. They sent a large number of Slaves toward the front. They want to use them to overcome the trenches. Word back in the Capital has already spread about our new Defensive Doctrine and how difficult it is for united forces to move in a group inside them. They plan to brute force it. The Slaves will be here before the main forces and will be carrying a large amount of supplies but not enough for the slaves themselves."

"So they plan on using all those slaves very soon after they arrive. Do we have a timeline?" I asked.

"Yes, do you have a timeline?" Elder Redscale asked, prompting my sister, who looked at me and then the Elder.

"Of course I do. It should be arriving in two weeks before the reinforcements get here. I personally believe that the Emperor is trying to give the commander here a chance to prove themselves, as I heard a very interesting rumor." She paused for a moment, "The Third Princess seems to have been in a position to respond to our forces and brought the military forward from the borders. So, the Emperor wants his family to gain military merits because it seems that the nobility might be getting a little more power than the Emperor likes. Although those are unsubstantiated rumors."

I leaned back and I grinned, "This is perfect!" I chuckled, turning to Isabelle, "We can respond the exact way that we wished to respond to this in the beginning. With the A rankers of the Empire coming late with their main forces."

"Now, it is up to Isabelle-," Elder Redscale cut in.

"Elder Redscale, with all due respect, this is something that Supreme Commander Chelsea and I have already discussed in length. The fact that they are bringing this many battle slaves to the point it will overwhelm their own forces is perfect. We have discussed this at length to the point that this plan is BOTH OF OURS!" Isabelle snapped, "We will have to refine it to the situation of the day before, but this plan requires the Elite Army under her orders in order to put it forward. In the meantime, I will control the trenches as her forces will control the City. The City is falling in line under her control and current arrangements are fine."

I could not believe how much this information windfall was worth. We were all smiling as tens of thousands of gold coins were used to prepare for those Battle Slaves. "If we are Lucky Elder Redscale," I said, turning to him, "This means we might have a shot at killing more A rankers or at least discovering they have more than us. In fact, I think some more Dragonic Elders would be ideal for the reinforcements. We have numbers in the trenches to fight the empire with Three hundred thousand soldiers, but we need Elders to cover us while we fight. Do you think that could be arranged?" I asked poking at him.

Elder Redscale looked annoyed, but we were on the right. "I will contact the Dragonic Elder to request more Elders be brought to the front."

I wanted to sneer as the words he just said were carefully chosen not to say that it would be Dragonic Elders. Instead, I kept a calm expression and smiled before replying, "Thank you, seriously. We need to deal with this news even more. Sister, I am sure you have more than just the major news—rumors and various other small information about weapons and supplies."

"Yes, Supreme Commander, I have many things, and I have written them out. I do not want to stay for too long, but with Mother helping me get back, I do have time for two days before I need to get back into the Empire to continue information gathering. Communications have been extremely difficult, leaving the Empire how hard their military is cracking down on trade and civilians." My sister replied seriously.

"Okay, then we are going to all have to ask you those questions now. Those that don't want to know the small details are free to leave."

Most of the Elders left except Elder Redscale and my mother. It was a show that they were here as deterrents to other A rankers, and we got into the discussion right away. Isabelle was just as excited as I was to finally have information about the Empire's backline.

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