Everything for kilometers around was grass and flowers. The highway cut through the space like Moses separated the sea. And on this road the first penal division marched. Every single day they were attacked by artillery in the night only for them to march in the day knowing that they would find nothing.
The first thing to be destroyed by artillery fire was the civilian vehicles that got nationalized to be used by the army. They were not made to sustain damage and after three nights of artillery fire the only ones left were used to move the officers instead of the prisoner-soldiers.
Morale was low, the prisoner-soldiers soon realized that they were meant to die. That their lives were useless and that the advance of their divisions was only to clear the pathway for the divisions that would follow them.
By the fourth day the division's strength was already down to sixty percent. A normal division would have been retired from the front to allow its recovery but this division had orders to advance and would only be allowed to retire from the front if it reached twenty percent of its original strength.
Of those casualties, Tanya's platoon's only casualties were from her executing troops that treasonously deserted their posts. The Captain-Commissar soon noticed that the rest of the platoons started to follow what she did. For example, they used any cover possible, if there was a small rock they would take cover behind it to sleep. They would never congregate in large groups unless absolutely necessary. That among other things helped to ease the amount of deaths due to artillery fire.
Xiure Yuli as leader of this company received a constant stream of praise from his superior, the Colonel Octavio Ortorio. Even after the division wide punishment discipline was hard to implement but among his company discipline was not imposed out of fear but with the intention to survive. There was an incident where an entire platoon tried to run away in the night, escaping into the sea of grass. But when Tanya discovered this desertion she encouraged her platoon to search and destroy the fleeing platoon in its entirety. Not one that tried to escape survived the hunt and no prisoners were taken.
Tanya von Degurechaff -she liked to be called like that- was merciless with her own troops and comrades. She didn't care that those that she was killing were poor men that were in prison for stupid laws or for small crimes. She followed the rules of discipline that were created for the penal divisions as if they were some sort of sacred writing. And honestly the captain-commissar started to fear her. How could a sane man not, a fourteen year old that could cold-bloodedly kill so many men on her own side was a monster.
Was she like that because she was born and raised in a prison or because she was a psychopath? The Captain couldn't tell but at some point he started to hope that an artillery round would kill her to avoid any future problems. But nights passed and that desire never became a reality.
"We are fucked." Commented Octavio Ortorio as he watched the darkness of night approaching. Another night of artillery fire was to come. Damned be the day that the Palpatine loyalists, also known as Palpatineists, succeeded in convincing the artillery regiments to side with them. The loyalist to Anakin lack of tanks or capability for heavily mechanized warfare meant that they would be doomed to lose this war. The only good news was that most of the officers remained loyal to Emperor Anakin and they had access to a lot more of the population.
Human waves could bring victory to the loyalists but the problem is that the first wave of the human wave was not expected to survive. And they were the first wave.
"Honestly, I don't want to die." Commented with Xiure Yuli to Ortorio as he puffed on a cigarette, neither of the planet's factions had spaceships so the trade was able to continue without either side able to blockade the other, traders from Palpatineist planets delivered products to the rebellious side while the traders from loyalist planets delivered products to the legitimate government. Really what a nightmare, any officer among the loyalists would give up all access to the trade for a single Venator or a clone legion. Clone legions could conquer planets in a matter of weeks even with how small their numbers were and a Venator would give them both the recon they needed and the fire support they desperately wished for.
"Every day the artillery fire rains down on us and we can never so much as touch them. I am starting to think that we will definitely die with our troops out here. What a disgrace to die surrounded by scumbags." Answered Ortorio.
"Yes, I was wondering if I should've brought a prostitute from a city with me, at least then I would've had a good fuck before dying."
Ortorio and Yuli laughed at that comment. Prostitutes had always been one of the greatest sources of morale for the military. More so in times when things were not looking so great. No one wanted to die, but especially no one wanted to die without getting laid in the last month.
Slowly the laughs petered out and only the faces of men that had seen thousands of deaths remained. The laughter was an escape from reality and while they did not suffer the dire conditions of the front in this civil war they were survivors of Grievous's campaign through the Core. Their armies had to resist against Grievous's unrelenting droid armies for weeks and at that time they were far lower ranked having to fight on the frontline. Those battles allowed both of them rise through ranks as officers died much faster than the military academy could replace them.
"War is not an adventure." Commented Yuli, there was a time where all the armies on the core held that belief. The ones that survived Grievous's campaign would never fall into the trap of believing that peace was boredom and war adventure.
"No, but sadly we still have to fight it, prepare your company for the night. I hope to see you alive tomorrow." Ortorio commented with a laugh as he stood, patting Yuli on the shoulder.
Yuli nodded and also stood up.
"I say the same to you"
Both men turned around, leaving the vehicle they were in and stepping onto the grass. The land they were on was hilly, so they left the main road and made their encampment here. With any luck the hills would prevent some of the deaths that would have come this night.
Yuli smoked, as he walked toward his company. He really wanted to have a good fuck, a warm bed, some warm food and to see his friends for a drink at a pub. He could think of nothing better than drinking some cheap booze while enjoying some expensive cigarettes then paying some alien prostitute far less than he would a human one and having the night of his life.
Sadly on the front there was little room for such a life.
Yuli finally reached his company's position, due to its great efficiency it was charged with defending the front of the division. It was hardly an honor if you asked him, if a battle broke out his company would be the first ones to die. Luckily it did give him as the captain an air of respectability, even if he did not see it as an honor others did. That respectability and perceived honor could be capitalized on if he survived, he could leverage that to live a safe and hopefully comfortable life in the rear.
He entered the army expecting adventures; he now just wanted to live safely in the rear.
He soon reached the campfire, around it were the lieutenants of his company. The enemy always started their bombardment at two in the morning so they could move about freely until then. After the shelling started everyone would hide where they could, praying that the next artillery explosion wouldn't turn them into a deformed piece of meat.
"Captain-Commissar" Said a feminine voice, the first one to stand was Lieutenant Tanya von Degurechaff. Her uniform looked impeccable as always and her two guns were so well cleaned that they almost looked new.
Rapidly the rest of the lieutenants, who honestly looked more like gangsters than anything else, rose saluting Yuli in a proper manner.
"At ease." Answered Yuli, not impressed by Tanyas perfect discipline. He had unfortunately gotten used to it. Rapidly all the lieutenants sat around the campfire. On the second day they attempted to hide their positions by not making any fires in the hope that they would not be spotted by the artillery brigades. Unfortunately each of those brigades had enough technology and recon support companies to not need to depend on primitive things like visuals of campfires to identify them.
The division was blind and had to fight an enemy that not only could see them but that also could shoot them from kilometers away.
Yuli sat around the fire, having Tanya to his right and took one of the cups that were sitting on the floor, slowly he filled it from the pot that was being warmed by the fire. After taking a small sip he nodded. It was chai, a good drink, if he was going to die at least it could be with a nice taste in the mouth.
"Another night of artillery fire" Sighed Yuli. The rest of the lieutenants could only sigh with him in commiseration. They were the vanguard of the division and between the vanguard the ones at the tip of the spear were Tanya's platoon.
"We really could decrease the casualties from artillery fire if we just did the logical thing," commented Tanya while drinking from her cup. She had both hands on it, her hat was on the floor and her guns ready in case combat happened.
"And what is that?" Asked Yuli, not because he really wanted the answer but because he was tired, very tired. Of Tanya, of the artillery fire, of the war…
"Trenches."
"Trenches? Never heard of that word"
"They are… holes dug in the ground"
"How would that help with…"
Then Yuli realized he learned this in the Military Academy. Most casualties of artillery fire were not from the explosion per se but from the shrapnel that the shell created. It was a very old style of artillery, the clone armies for example lacked that type of artillery due to the problematic logistics but some local armies if not most kept this old era artillery. Very easy to use, very easy to produce.
And the best way to be protected from that shrapnel that the shell created was being behind some cover. Digging a hole in the land would practically make you untouchable by shrapnel unless it would be a direct hit in the hole. Something that was almost impossible because while the ammunition was intelligent it was not droid munition that could control its own movement.
"We have an engineer support company from the army… how long does it take to dig a trench?"
"Some hours, if you give me enough shovels I can assure you that your Company will have the lowest casualties in the entire division."
The fact that he already had that did not change the fact that if he could prove this tactic was worth something he would have a better chance for survival and more importantly he could at some point reach a comfy position in the rear. He didn't want to die and for survival he would do anything.
"Degurechaff, the engineers are around a kilometer down the road, at the end of the convoy. Ask them for shovels, take the entire company with you. I want to see if your proposed idea works."
Tanya von Degurechaff gave a crisp military salute to Yuli and started to march, the rest of the lieutenants following her. He soon was left alone by the fire.
Yuli was a tall man with a great deal of strength. He had brown hair and eyes; he was an average looking man. Not ugly nor was he handsome. But he had an imposing meter and eighty centimeters that made him taller than most of the people around him.
"I will do whatever I have to to be reassigned to the rear."
He soon saw his company marching to the rear of the convoy, it was only half of the company instead of the entire company. They were not going to be attacked, he knew that. They had not been attacked the last few days during the daytime hours but apparently Tanya decided to take an alternative approach to his orders, she must have thought that there was a possibility of attack.
Or at least that was the only way Yuli could explain that she decided to ignore his order knowing full well he could execute her for that. But honestly it would be stupid to execute her for taking the right measures.
There was a great depth of apathy in Yuli's soul, only being in the rear could make him regain his hope and life.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I marched as the night was settling in, the land on this planet was very soft and black, any man could dig trenches here easily. In the era of my first life machines could dig trenches in a matter of minutes but with the lack of specialized trench digging machines I would use people to create trenches.
Giving my superiors advice when they seemed to lack answers to problems could be my opportunity to rise through the ranks, become free and get a safe posting in the rear. Advising about trenches was only the first step, it also meant that I had more opportunities to survive this war. I didn't want to be the pessimistic one but against artillery fire I doubt my fragile body would be able to resist.
After the civil war was finished on this planet, I would be returned to prison. The only way to ensure my liberty was to gain it in this civil war. The prison system on my planet had some particularities. First of all there were no light sentences. You would go to prison forever no matter what type of crime you do, the only difference being what type of job you would do. The lesser your crime the less difficult and the less deadly the job was.
One way to get out of prison was paying your fine with the money you were paid for doing your jobs. Seems easy, no? Well not really. This system wasn't made to be fair but to benefit the rich. A system where those who had enough money could buy themselves or their family members out of prison once they were caught.
My fine was fifty five thousand credits and my yearly salary was half a thousand credits. And those were the fines of the less dangerous and problematic prisoners. Serial killers' fines were in the millions.
Trut put a hand on my shoulder, I looked up at him as we walked. He had survived so far thanks to following my orders. He was a good second in command, he could give the troops the will that they lacked when I was the one giving orders.
"You seem angry."
"No, no, of course I am not angry. I am actually happy that the Captain-Commissar has decided to accept my suggestion for digging trenches."
"Yes… I've never heard that word before. Where did you learn it?"
"In a book about the clone wars."
A blatant lie but I had to say something. Everyone would just ignore your unexplainable knowledge if you said it was from a book. In the end who was actually going to take the time of searching out and reading that book?
"Oh well, and this will increase our chances of survival?"
"Yes if we are lucky, if not then a hole is going to be filled with our blood and guts."
"I guess we should have faith in God to save us from that destiny."
"If you have faith in something, have it in your luck. It does not exist and neither does God but at least you don't have to pray to it."
Trut and some others around Tanya laughed at that but many others remained silent.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soon it would be two in the morning. Tanya and all the company were digging in the soft terrain, Tanya organized the process of creating defensive lines of constant V trenches that allowed the troops to remain vigilant and prevent a single lucky artillery shell from killing all the people in one trench. Of course no one understood it at first or even thought about it until she explained it to them.
Captain Yuli could only feel somehow gifted that this… weird and small warmachine was in his company, this trench could be the one saving his life tonight and he certainly didn't want to die. But sleeping with the prisoners was a very risky move. Morale was low and the prisoners could try to escape or kill him in vengeance. How could he sleep in that situation?
With a small sigh he started to approach Tanya who was supervising the construction of the trench, the rest of the division was already sleeping or patrolling. His colonel warned him that this little thing of creating trenches would make his soldiers be more tired for tomorrow's march and that it was not worth it. He could be right but at least he could ask that his company would be at the rear of the spear instead of at its tip.
"This trench thing, where did you learn about it?"
"I read it in a book about the clone wars" She commented without thinking twice. Yuli didn't know why but he instantly knew that it was a lie. While there were some libraries in the prisons they never had books about warfare much less on the clone wars. Not even he had access to books on the clone wars and he was a free citizen with a military rank.
Did he want to dig into what secrets this mysterious woman with such war abilities had? The answer was no. She had the word problem written all over her and the first rule to be able to get to the rear line was to avoid problems, or solve them.
Yuli looked at Tanya again.
Better get to the rear line by avoiding problems.
"That's so good to hear, I am a man that doesn't want to die unnecessarily so methods like this are good. Really how dishonorable it is to use artillery this way."
"I find myself with a contrary opinion. While I share the opinion that I don't want to die unnecessarily I believe artillery is the most honorable weapon. It is an indiscriminate weapon, it does not care who or what you are. Artillery shells are the most fair weapon and ammunition in the battlefield."
"How can you say that while your fellow soldiers die from artillery fire every day?"
"Their deaths are not because of the enemy's lack of honor but because of our lack of military capacities. Who was the genius that wanted to fight self-propelled artillery brigades with a division that at most can travel at four kilometers per hour."
The captain nodded as he realized that this girl… liked war. The way she talked of war reminded him of his old friend who was a colonel. The bastard loved war and talked about it as if it was a game. Both had the same aura of veteran warriors but for him it felt strange because neither of them had actually met a battlefield yet.
Warmaniacs love and understand war before they fight one, Yuli concluded.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I saw how the Captain-Commissar was sleeping on the entire other side of the trench, he had his pistol in his hand like he was expecting to enter battle at any moment. His comments about honorable warfare made me realize that the Captain actually was a warmanic. To be able to see any type of honor in killing and dying then you were undoubtedly a war maniac. His pistol in his hands showed me that he actually desired to enter battle.
Of course I could be wrong, he could be stupid for the people that saw honor in battle were stupid or warmanics.
But the possibility of him being stupid was near zero. He was an intelligent man, as soon as he understood the concept of trenches he ordered me to create them to avoid unnecessary deaths. To be able to think of a concept before it is normalized is very hard, to use it efficiently once is a known thing. It was also very hard because humans had an addiction to many things. One of them was stupidity.
The difference between stupidity and irrationality was a fine line, there were some key differences. Not doing the rational thing didn't mean you were stupid. I have myself fallen into irrationality many times and people have called me a monster, the devil, a hero but never stupid.
Well my father and mother when I was not able to be the first of my class…
Anyway, irrationality had some things on it. Accepting that what you were doing was not the most rational thing but still doing it wasn't necessarily stupid. I put my life at risk to save Viktoriya and my subordinates of the 203 many times. It was irrational but not stupid.
Anyway, warmaniacs could be stupid or irrational but he didn't seem stupid but he was still dangerous for my life as he was my superior and he could drag me into his irrational idea of honorable battle.
I don't want to charge with a katana toward an enemy that had a machine gun. I much prefer a dishonorable war of dropping thousands of tons of bombs in the name of liberal democracy in order to increase the benefits of my country's private companies.
I realized for a second that I was delirious. What has happened to my thought process? My ideas had become strange since my second death. Probably so many years of imprisonment had damaged my way of being and well… Two deaths take their toll whether you want them to or not.
Anyway, my captain was a war maniac and he would probably ruin my life the moment we entered into battle.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Colonel advanced down the road as he saw the amount of dead soldiers in the grass. It was really shameful the amount of people that had died. It was right to fight for Anakin the Emperor but all this death made him feel that this was useless. Of course marching until they found a city to conquer was basically their orders but the artillery brigades would destroy them before they could reach anything. There was almost no possible way to end up leaving this place alive.
When the Colonel reached the front of the division he saw something unexpected. There were no dead people around, no blood and guts scattered in the grass. Instead there were only holes and a long and deep hole that made a constant V appearance.
"Yuli! You alive?!" Screamed the Colonel as he marched to this weird modification in the soil.
"Here Ortorio!" Screamed the voice of Yuli. Ortorio looked at the end of the burrowed line where a man and a woman were leaving it. He identified both Yuli and Degurechaff with their uniforms and hats. The golden marks showing their ranks.
Ortorio looked with suspicion at Yuli. What was he doing with the underage prisoner? No, fuck no. They were friends for too much time and he was not that type of man.
"This is the so-called trench you were working on all night?" Asked the Colonel.
"Yes."
"Did it work?"
"I don't know. Degurechaff, go and make the recount"
"At your orders sir" She answered, leaving his side. Both Ortorio and Yuli approached each other until they did a handshake. They had survived another night of artillery fire. It seemed more difficult every day to survive and not just the prisoners died. Recently officers started to get blown up by artillery as well.
"Was it comfortable to sleep in this trench?" Asked Ortorio.
"No, not really, but at least I wasn't blown up and with how many artillery shells were falling I really have to give my thanks to that trench. One of the good points of digging trenches is that you are too damn tired to care about how comfortable it is or that you have no bed"
"And you are covered in dirt, in the training camp they would have slammed your head against a desk for that"
"Yes, but we are no longer in the training camp. We are on the front and we are the tip of the spear of the army against an enemy that is using artillery to destroy us. So fuck off with the dress code. I'd rather be dirty and alive than stylish and dead"
"I guess that is true… anyway organize your company. We will be marching in half an hour, we are supposed to reach the city in three days"
"Three more days? We will be dead by then."
"Orders are orders, if we refuse them we are dead."
"Fuck this shit. Really. Are our generals incompetent?"
"I wouldn't call them incompetent… they won the war against Grievous."
"Won? They survived, survived is the correct word and I could survive too if I was in the rear line. But no, I was on the frontline with an overheated blaster in my hands defending against hordes of droids. I was lucky to make it out alive and off of that battlefield."
The Colonel didn't say anything and looked to the sky as the cold wind gave him a small shiver. Three minutes later Degurechaff returned, crisply saluting both officers.
"We have zero casualties," she commented. The colonel's face was one of complete surprise. Like if she just said that she found God or that the Emperor himself was here with a legion of clones.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me" Yuli commented with genuine suprise .
"No sir, all alive, some artillery shells almost gave us a bad morning but we got lucky they fell on the empty parts of the trench"
Ortorio put his hand on Yuli's shoulder, absolutely surprised by this development. "Can you come with me for a moment?" He asked. Yuli nodded and dismissed Tanya with a gesture of his hand. Both started to move towards their designated vehicle as they marched through the rest of the division that was dealing with the deaths caused by the artillery fire.
"So, this trench, right? Does it increase the chances for survival? Where did you learn it?"
"In a book about the clone wars."
"Ooo, those fucking clones they probably have the most modern tactics. Damn I would really like to have a legion here to help us. Okay that makes sense. So you create this trench with the idea that the artillery doesn't kill you as long as it does not fall directly in the trench. right?"
"Correct, once you think of it, it makes so much sense. But thinking of it before you see it is very difficult. I feel stupid for not having thought about it."
"I see, I see," Commented the Colonel. This was his opportunity to rise to the upper ranks and reach the rear line, his friend and his subordinate just handed him the key.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The General saw from his mobile HQ how the Colonels organized the penal division. Another night of artillery fire had destroyed their positions and as the corpses rotted they had to continue advancing if they didn't want to be executed for cowardice.
What did he do to deserve being put in charge of a penal division? Surrounded by scum, his death would come from his enemies or these idiotic criminals.
The General sighed. If only there could be a way to earn prestige and move to a division worth leading instead of this shithole…
"General," Said Colonel Octavio Ortorio as he approached.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I looked to the city in front of us, and we finally reached our first destination, Lari. It was one of the biggest cities on the planet and as the division deployed to prepare for battle I could see that they had been preparing the defenses of the city for days. Prepared defenses around a kilometer outside of the city. I could see artillery positions inside the city and some machine gun nests in the prepared defense.
We were supposed to conquer this city with just an infantry division with only an engineer company for support?
We were absolutely dead.
Well, at least if I was going to die on this third life it would be while seeing a city that had clearly benefited from the liberal ideas. Skyscrapers that were so tall that it would make anyone that lived in New York seethe with jealousy or cackle with madness. I could swear that these skyscrapers were taller than two kilometers. Even in the upcoming battle thousands if not tens of thousands of… I don't know what they were actually called but cars that floated populated the entire city. And that was only the little things I could see from where I was.
How could these people live a normal life while an army was marching toward them? They definitely trusted the defenses of the city, or they simply were ignorant of the death and the suffering that these battles caused. Whatever the reason it was not something that should matter for me.
"Platoon!" I screamed as we continued
"Behold the beauty of this city as we march to certain death! Our lives are meaningless and our orders are to die. I do not fear death but I understand those that do. When the battle starts follow me if you want to live. Machine gun nests are the most dangerous things, they are fixed to their positions so they have little if any maneuverability. We will probably be forced to go first so we shall clear the machine gun nests first so the others that follow us have a greater possibility of survival."
The soldiers around answered with a scream of war. Fucking war maniacs. Why were my soldiers always war maniacs?
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-She is going to execute us- thought everyone at the same time except Trut. Scared shitless due to her ruthless executions of those who ran away or didn't follow her orders, the soldiers assigned to her accepted everything she said no matter how crazy it was.
They were also scared of Trut. They could kill the little officer if they wanted if it wasnt for her muscled gay bodyguard that threatened to rape them every time they were not doing their jobs -fast enough-
This duo was ruthless and scared them to death.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Captain Yuli saw how the division deployed for the upcoming offensive, some machine gun nests had fired at them but they completely missed their target. Either those inside the machinegun were untrained militias or those had warning shots. And those being warning shots didn't make any sense.
His company was the first one to march, according to the general orders he was supposed to advance and take out the machine guns near the road when he could. The road was of no real military relevance but for some reason the General decided that the area had to be secured.
There were many machine gun nests that he could see from his position, probably twenty in the area around the road with almost no cover to hide from the fire. He was supposed to charge with his troops but he didn't want to.
He remembered his superior officers when he was just a soldier, all of them dying in heroic charges against the droid army.
He started to hyperventilate. He didn't know what was after death but he didn't want to die. He didn't want to be another name in an underfunded state project to commemorate the heroes of war.
"Commissar-Captain?"
Yuli returned to reality as Tanya slowly approached him. The first company and the rest of the division was on a hill. Their black uniforms made the hill almost appear black. The uniform had no camouflage value and killing them in most scenarios would be easy but Tanya saw an opportunity.
"What it is?"
"This offensive is going to be a failure. We are going to die the moment we leave this hill."
"I know that, you don't need to be a military genius to see that."
"Of course I knew you knew that. What I am trying to say is that if we changed the offensive to the night we could have the surprise factor in our favor and most importantly we could kill the machine gun nest before it slaughters us."
"With what power? With those of a jedi? Degurechaff, this is not a book, this is real life. There is no magic wizard that can kill all those machine guns without firing a shot."
"Commissar-Captain. We will die if we do this offensive. Our deaths will be worth nothing if this entire penal division disintegrates against that defensive position. If we are going to die, at least be for a worthy cause."
The Captain sighed. He didn't want to die and Tanya's idea already saved him once… What was the worst that could happen?
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Colonel Ortorio walked in circles as he realized that after some of his companies were sacrificed he would be forced to charge with the surviving companies. He didn't want to die because his superiors were idiots that didn't understand that their war books that are more than twenty thousand years old had no real value in this modern world.
"I don't care If Yuli dies but I do not want to fucking die."
The Colonel and Yuli were friends not because they were really friends but because they survived together in the battle against the droid army for months. A friend that he could have a drink with when his wife was angry with him or to go and do something questionable with, like selling some guns that no one would notice were missing on the black market.
"Ortorio!" Screamed someone that he quickly recognized as Yuli. What timing honestly, a few seconds before and he would hear him say that he doesn't care if he dies. Lucky for him Yuli was too stupid to realize when he was being manipulated. An honest man if anything.
"Friend, what is going on? I thought you were going in five minutes"
"Yes I was but I came up with a plan. Please put me in contact with the general. It will be far better than dying meaninglessly against those machine gun nests."
Ortorio clicked his tongue with his mouth.
"I think that would be rather difficult, you know that there are some rules that have to be followed. Tell me the plan and I will pass it on to the General."
Yuli was nervous, his stress from the war against the droids seemed to come out again. Really what a waste of a man. Ortorio thought to himself.
"The plan is…"
"Approved." Answered the General to Colonel Ortorio as he read the information on the pad he was holding in his hands. "By the way, this trench thing is a really good idea, it has decreased the casualties per day by eighty percent. Maybe I will recommend you for a promotion one day."
"I would be so glad to be recommended by you, my General."
"Yes… yes… stop the ass kissing and start moving. I hope that this tactic that you came up with will be worth something."
"Yes, Sir."
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music was coming through speakers as the young private Jule watched in the night the hill in front of him. His orders were to shoot anything that came from there, but he couldn't see shit so he just relaxed, lit a smoke and listened to music. The building where he was stationed was made of durasteel and was implemented with light to illuminate itself.
It was really boring to be in this fortification for twelve hours. He preferred his job in the mega factory. But an officer came, gave him a paper saying that he was drafted by the Palpatine Loyalist Army and here he was now. It took ten hours to teach him how to manage a machine gun well enough and the rest was history.
"Behind the hill there is an entire division but they are not charging, what a bunch of pussies," Laughed one of the privates through the comms. Jule laughed at that. He wouldn't charge directly into a machine gun. That is crazy, he saw those movies of wars, only an idiot would charge at the enemy without cover. That's why he was thankful to be in this prepared defense. There was almost no way he could die out of nowhere.
Or at least he thought that until a foreign hand was put in his mouth and something stabbed him through in the torso, ending his life in seconds as his blood and guts spilled out of him. When he fell slowly to the floor with the help of the assassin, a small figure in a black uniform smiled.
"I prefer shovels, but knives work too." She said in a whisper no one could hear. It was three in the morning and Tanya's platoon advanced through the grass. Bodies to the dirt and not a sound coming from them. The fear of Tanya and Trut enforced an iron discipline in the platoon they normally lacked. Slowly fortification after fortification was quietly butchered in silent attacks. No one had ever done this type of operation before, but killing a man with a knife was something many could do as Tanya replaced the ones she executed with serial killers from other companies and platoons that were happy to get rid of those problematic elements..
The psychopath platoon was the name given from the rest of the members of the division.
But Tanya didn't care. The lights of the nest were being turned off as they were cleared. Captain Yuli couldn't believe what he was seeing with his eyes, what would have cost them thousands of deaths was turning out to be a supreme victory for them in a few minutes. The entire sector was cleared of machine gun nests. All lights turned off.
"Captain-Commissar," Sounded a whispering voice through the comms he had. Yuli, scared of the voice, answered.
"Lieutenant Degurechaff?"
"Is time to take the outside defenses of the city. I will be waiting for you"
To Yuli it felt like an invitation from some sort of God of Death, like she was asking for him to sell his soul.
"Captain Yuli to all platoons. Advance in silence."
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I waited in a gully in the dirt before entering the city. It was small, but big enough that I could hide myself and the platoon with me. I didn't see if the Captain was coming but I could only wait and hope that the defensive troops in the city wouldn't notice. With the suprise factor in our side we could destroy the goddamned artillery brigade that has been fucking us for the last few days.
I shouldn't fall to emotions because then I would fall to irrationalism. But this fucking time I would indulge myself in some righteous fury. I wanted to kill every single goddamn artillery man that brigade had. No sleep for an entire week, and worst of all, without coffee! How could they dare to do this to me!
"Good job platoon," I communicated whispering. I had to show to my troops that I noticed and appreciated their exemplary work, and showing that as their officer I was a respectable one. To gain their loyalty I had to be the best officer possible. Not only because it was expected of me but because victory cannot be achieved with disloyal troops.
The platoon did not answer. They kept their order of silence. I really should be thankful that their discipline was strong enough.
It took forty minutes for the rest of the company to come, every second that passed made me feel like I was going crazy. All those damn nests had radios in them and if no one answered them it would throw away the element of surprise.
"What took you so long?" I whispered to the Captain.
"I crawled all the way here."
I wanted to cry. He has crawled an entire kilometer. My captain is a fucking idiot.
"You just had to crawl the last hundred meters. There was no one to spot you the entire kilometer"
"Why didn't you say that?"
"Because… anyway I am sorry Captain-Commissar. I should know my place."
I sighed and turned around to see the last meters to enter the city. The illumination of the city did not reach us yet but if we advanced ten meters we would finally be able to see something. The defenses were already implemented in the outskirts of the city. If we passed over them the battle wouldn't be on the fixed defenses outside the city but actually inside the city. Which would allow greater survival chances for me.
Urban warfare is better than charging a machine gun.
"When you give the order, Captain-Commissar."
"Can I be honest with you Lieutenant?"
"Of course."
"You impress me. How can you be such a… cold blooded person to kill for the first time and not care? I have only destroyed droids so far, if I kill someone in this attack it will be the first person I kill and honestly, I am not prepared for it"
"This was not the first person I have killed. The first time I killed someone it was a simple shot, that poor man died immediately. I simply thought of it as a job, a job that had to be done and I was paid for. Because killing is a job sadly and I am one lacking money as every human being is. So I kill, and kill, and kill, and kill and don't really care for them. They would kill me too for a miserable salary that probably would not allow them to buy a house. I guess you can be born with the ability to kill and not care, but I can assure you killing is something you can get used to and addicted to."
My captain was a war maniac, he talked of honor in battle, but he at least wasn't an inhumane person. He cared for the people he was going to kill. I could respect that. In a rational world this man would have had more opportunities. Sadly this is an irrational world.
"Fuck, what a moment to give me this speech," Said Yuli with a tone of voice I couldn't quite place.
"It's just a job,?" I said with a smile. "Just like any other."
Yuli panicked and hyperventilated as he apparently was digesting what I said to him.
"Fuck this shit," He rapidly put his mouth near the comms to whisper his orders.
"The Fifth Platoon will give us support fire. The rest, follow me. For the Emperor!"
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Yuli smoked as he stared at the bodies around him. The battle to take the outer defenses of the city was a complete victory. The rest of the brigades entered the city as his company rested around the battlefield. Destroyed self-propelled artillery pieces and roughly a thousand dead bodies laid around as if their lives were meaningless and worth nothing. Yuli felt sick but he had killed five men with his pistol and he could swear he heard Tanya laughing while she killed dozens if not more.
Killing droids was something completely different to killing… people that were alive.
Yuli exhaled the smoke of the cigarette as he heard the battle waging on in the city. Would this city fall or become an urban battle only the General would know. He as a captain had limited knowledge of what was happening and he felt lucky that the General had the empathy to give his company rest after all this operation.
A night infiltration. Really what a wonderful idea. Tanya was blessed with a knowledge that was so… logical yet impressive.
Maybe he was harshly judging her. She probably had a harsh life being a prisoner since birth. He always supported that system but now maybe… the system had to be reformed if there were some problems in it. A child being forced to be a prisoner because her parents were criminals wasn't right.
A group of soldiers that were not aligned with the Anakin loyalists then appeared. They were blinded and scuffed. Some soldiers of the fifth platoon apparently captured some guys that surrendered. Seeing their insignia he realized that they were of the artillery brigade. The fuckers that shelled them all those days while they marched. Really he would like to kill them all but he knew that he shouldn't, that he couldn't live with himself if he did.
He stood up and brushed off his dirty uniform and approached the prisoners. This child lacked so much of a parental figure that she even chose a name for herself and never used the one given by her parents. He should try to teach her about being… normal as she taught him the art of warfare. He can learn something useful from this war maniac and she can learn something useful from him.
Then a blaster sound was heard, repetitive shots and all the prisoners falling to the floor. Yuli looked on in shock, and saw how the first platoon had just executed all the artillerymen as if they were animals. He puked after seeing so many men dying in that way.
Then he started to hear a laugh, a maniacal laugh of a young woman. He raised his eyes to see a golden haired child with ice blue eyes enjoying the death of these artillerymen. Her pistol was in its holster and her gun was slung over her back so she hadn't shot any of them, but her laugh, her maniacal laugh chilled him.
She didn't kill because it was a job. She killed because she enjoyed it.
"No Geneva Convention, no rules of war to follow."
Yuli didn't understand any of those words but he felt fear taking power in his body as he saw how the men of the first platoon did not care about these deaths… They called them the psychopath platoon.
Now he couldn't deny it. Tanya von Degurechaff was a fucking monster and she made her troops into monsters too.
He didn't want to become a monster.