High School Soldier
102. The fate of war
16 November 2321, 13:09 WIB/1914 Luan Empire, noon.
**
The first battle after the declaration of war by Bogat, can not be called a battle. The biggest reason for this defeat was the lack of information regarding their enemy.
That was why, the Imperial capital had an attack at midnight. The TNI artillery units are famous for their shooting skills. The unit bombarded the enemy with bullets, causing massive explosions and destroying important state facilities.
The victims were Imperial troops, and some civilians suffered minor injuries.
The attack was not intended to take control of the capital, but only to warn and distract the Combat Group from searching for kidnapped Indonesians.
**
The commander closed his eyes and trembled as he recalled the incident. The pain all over the body from being beaten by a soldier from the green troops, still this tall man felt. His teeth were broken, of course it could not grow anymore. His face is still decorated with bluish bruises.
There was a tower that the archer unit used to dispel the troops that were going to the capital. However, there was not a single archer in this building, and it had switched functions for the place to take care of the commander. So, there was only the commander and a few servants and 20 soldiers who were in this building.
From his room at the top of the building, the commander saw the remnants of the troops who came home limping. They were hundreds of people who had managed to escape from that unfair battle. They were lucky if the enemy did not chase them, that was why they could survive. In this condition, the journey home would be more painful than the battle itself.
Thousands of dead bodies of soldiers were buried by villagers across the country.
Upon hearing the news that the commander had improved, Sheyn rushed towards the tower where the man now lived.
The bad news of the Empire's defeat has reached the commander's ear. Luckily, he was not leading the army at the time. And some messages from the ‘commonwealth’ regions of the Luan Empire were received by the commander, should the message be received directly by Sheyn.
The quality of treatment and food is poor, but it can make this man's strength gradually increase.
“Commander Ragh, I will ask the Empire to send healers and medicines.”
Although Sheyn is the princess of the Empire, Ragh is in some ways superior.
But, Ragh shook his head.
“I'm sorry to have supported your father's plan. Moreover, the Empire will soon be split into two.”
“Why? What makes you think so?”
“Some envoys from the region, they declared they wanted to escape the Empire's power. I hear you are strongly opposed to a war with a green army, and the decision was supported by the nobility of the peace faction. In other words, a new country will be formed, you will lead it.”
Sheyn has tried her best to stop this war, but the peace agreement that will happen, it is no longer valid for now. He thought that establishing a new power was the best way to change the course of the war. He also felt that if the Empire did not understand the strength of the enemy, if it continued to happen this country would collapse.
As those thoughts were planted in her head, Sheyn stared straight at Ragh.
“The empire is very strong, before deciding to open the Gate and fight with other worlds. Anything to stop the Empire, I will do.”
The news of the establishment of a new state formed from the Empire's breakaway territories, of course the green forces should know about it. Because the Holy Land where the Gate was in was one of the regions that was about to break away.
Ragh had no words to say, it was difficult to speak when his tongue was severely injured. However, he had already delivered such an important news to Sheyn, then he could feel calm afterwards.
“Commander Ragh, then who will you be on?”
The hatred towards Bogat and the Hrabro Kingdom for declaring war with the mysterious country has already peaked. Since nothing else would be gained from the Empire, Ragh had already made a very steady decision.
“Of course I will side with the new country to be formed, my Queen.”
Sheyn gave a small smile after Ragh said that, it shows that the plan to establish a new country is not playing games. With Ragh's help, he was convinced that the power of this new country could rival the power of the Empire.
His eyes stared out the window of the room Ragh was being treated, from here a Fortress surrounding the Gate looked very small, with several iron creatures hovering above the place. Her heart had no doubt about this decision, as Ragh and Sheyn both believed in this future country.
**
What is the TNI doing on the other side of the Gate? Against the enemy .. right?
They pause to think, or rather are led to stop and think.
People will naturally sympathize with the weak. They use this sympathy to influence people.
The message is how modern culture destroys and defeats the weak. This message continues to be repeated until it leaves a deep impression on their listeners.
The battle in the world behind the Gate received even more attention, yet they could not decipher it in true words. People are only convinced if the TNI has defeated the enemy easily. Because there are few or no casualties on the TNI side, of course people will wonder how the fate of the opposing side.
The existence of casualties in the war is a natural thing, if the TNI side wins, then there will be many casualties on the other side. The anger of Indonesian citizens, especially Karanganyar when the incident of the attack on independence anniversary is understandable. However, there are some groups who want the ‘ Expeditionary Force to treat the enemy’ with compassion.
A much more important topic is the number of missing and dead victims which turned out to be far more than previously thought. This leads to the falsity of the answers given by the board members.
Because some council members who will be responsible for the number of victims of the incident are suspected of corruption. As the responsible party, of course they stated if the answers given were very serious.
If the government doesn't hide anything, they shouldn't refuse to tell the truth. And the board members continue to try to protect their good name.
Therefore, they decided to call some TNI soldiers in other worlds and some local representatives to receive a call from the central government.
This coincided with the departure of representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the other world to meet the party that made peace with Indonesia, the Kingdom of Arevelk. They are also tasked with diplomacy with parties who fight with the TNI so that peace arrives faster.
**
Sometimes while off duty, Nio only reads free e-books or web novels. The battles that have occurred lately make the soldiers tired and need entertainment. Although the internet network has been built, but the saturation of the army has reached its limit.
“Commander, are you listening?”
It was a soft female voice, but Nio decided to increase the volume of music he listened to with headfree. This young man is resting right now, and will not listen to anyone if it has nothing to do with work.
“Peltu, are you making a move?”
“Hah!? You are a girl! Your talk must be guarded..!”
When Nio turned around to answer the words of a woman, Dinda and Triana. Triana is a member of the Nio-led Squad who specializes in medical army positions, she used to be a nursing student and joined the Student Army when other world troops began to set foot on the island of Java.
Nio looked at the two of them with eyes full of suspicious gazes. If Nio had to describe their gaze with words, they might say, “Basic pornstar.”
Of course Nio's heart still ached after Dinda told him that, even though she really wasn't looking at the AV. Nio just opened a website that contained a gravure model.
“There are things we need to talk about.”
“Eh, me?”
Nio put his smartphone in the drawer, and stood up then walked behind these two girls.
“What's the problem?”
“It's about one of the refugees.”
Because they are both also in charge of taking care of the refugees, so they often communicate with the refugees. What they were talking about was one of the refugees who was often with Nio, a cat-eared Demihuman, Edera.
A group of psychiatrists have been brought in this world with the aim of psychologically examining the refugees who have seen the atrocities of battle. There are some human behaviors of the Demihuman race that make them confused to make hypotheses. Some of the behavior of the Demihuman race was very different from that of ordinary humans.
“Are there no witches among them? They probably know more.”
“We've spoken to witches, but we don't understand what they mean.”
‘cannot understand’, ‘information not enough’ and ‘not convince’, all these terms are only translated into Indonesian as ‘not know’ and ‘not understand’. They need to spend a lot of time learning the language of this world.
Some of the soldiers of the rover Squad 1 were just a bunch of people with brains full of muscles and expected the battle to continue. They do not even bother to learn the local language, because there are certainly some soldiers who are fluent in this world.
“In my opinion, one of the cat girls was heard constantly calling your name, Commander.”
“Yes, I know who you mean.”
Just as Nio wanted to continue with his words, Sergeant Two Liben came with the command he got for the 1st Cruiser Squad.
“Commander, it's time to go. Dinda, Triana get ready soon.”
They broke into the armory and asked for their respective ammunition.
The members of the 1st Cruiser Squad placed their rifles in a sling and secured their swords on the backs of their vests. The knife was sharpened for battle preparation. Sharp weapons are sharpened with burrs, but can be sharp enough to penetrate the human body.
Squad members sit together to put bullets into the magazine. Each soldier gets a ration of eight magazines, with 25 bullets in each magazine, it will be 200 shots. Grenades were also distributed.
The machine gunner carefully placed a 12.7mm ammunition belt into his bullet box. Multiple disposable rocket launchers were also distributed, each Squad getting 5 pieces.
After Nio's minions complete their preparations, the entire members install magazines onto their rifles and prepare the rifles into safe mode.
“We will be heading towards a potential battlefield, so all please be vigilant!”
That way, they left the fortress and set out for a refugee camp similar to housing.
There are hundreds of refugees and defectors in the refugee camps now, most of them slaves and thieves. Some prisoners of war who did not wish to return to the Empire, also joined the defectors. They could be hired as spies, due to their expertise on the Imperial terrain.
Each building built from semi-permanent materials can accommodate a family of four people. The people who lived were not family or relatives, so they had to blend in, which the teenagers could take care of the old and the smaller ones.
There was no electricity, no gas or water pipes, but things like that didn't exist in the world from the start, so the refugee activity wasn't disrupted even if it wasn't. Children can take water with buckets or plastic bottles from nearby springs. As for the sewage, they could throw it away by digging a hole in the corner of the camp.
About three meals a day, lunch and dinner provided by the Expeditionary Force consumption section. As for breakfast, they could eat leftovers overnight that could still be eaten, or cook foodstuffs provided by the Expeditionary Force. The food provided was more than enough, so the refugees did not have to look for wild plants to eat.
For dinner, members of the Nio group who were students of SMK majoring in gourmet and nutrition science students who were in charge of preparing with other team members, including, some of the children were seen chatting with soldiers who were cooking for them.
The Expeditionary Force wanted to support them to provide food for their own group, which was why for some time they did not cook for the refugees. That is the principle of peacekeepers when they are stationed in the Middle East.
If the refugees can meet their own needs adequately, then they can provide food for themselves. If they get a job, they might be able to afford to pay for their food.
That was the plan, but the Expeditionary Force would not push them too hard. After all, refugees come from all walks of life, and there is no way they will work like their previous jobs.
**
“Queen Sigiz, I didn't know you were here either.”
Sigiz personally wanted to meet the refugees who came from the outskirts of the Imperial capital, and wanted to see how the condition of the Empire's citizens living on the outskirts. He was saddened by the condition of the women who had to do the dirty work for food and money, he also felt indignant with the government of the Emperor named Bogat who did not seem to pay too much attention to the state of his people.
During the invasion of the capital, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battle groups failed to find the Emperor and the military faction's nobility. At least since that attacker, the war has not happened yet and the soldiers could increase their combat capabilities before the war happened again.
As Nio and Sigiz take a walk in the refugee camp, the children run to tease the two of them. Of course Nio was not affected by the children's temptations and kept a flat expression, but Sigiz behaved the opposite.
It felt like Sigiz had not seen Nio for long, and he was looking for various reasons to cross the border in order to reach the Expeditionary Force headquarters. In the end the Arevelk Kingdom heard that there were many citizens of the Empire who defected to the green troops, and Sigiz used that as his reason for heading to the Holy Land.
Members lowered drinking water, groceries, medical supplies, rations and daily supplies. Some male members look ‘iri’ with Nio who can walk around with a beautiful queen. While the female members, they wanted beauty and chest size on par with Sigiz's.
The men and boys carrying luggage returned to the refugee camp. Hundreds of dragon and wyvern carcasses littered the Holy Land, with some refugees saying their claws and skin if sold would be expensive.
The TNI did not need any hard dragon skin material, so the refugees were shocked by the statement. After all, in the TNI home world, there were very many types of metals that were much stronger than dragon scales and skin.
“What's Edera?”
The two of them cross paths with Edera who finished helping the women prepare dinner ingredients. My eyes Edera made this girl's expression impressed ‘kasian’, but it's the typical expression of this girl since birth.
“Queen, what in your country are the half-star races treated well? And they weren't made slaves like me?”
Sigiz's heart immediately felt pierced by an arrow and so stifling. Some refugees from the Demihuman race looked fine, even though their previous lives were so miserable. And they felt this torture since the establishment of the Luan Empire 700 years ago, some Demihuman tribes were said to be extinct due to the invasion by Imperial forces to expand the territory.
Such history also occurs in the world of origin, as is the case where the indigenous peoples of Australia and Tasmania were massacred and destroyed by the British colonies there.
Or maybe the Empire acted the same way the Spaniards destroyed the Incas.
Or like the Carthaginian civilization, destroyed by the Romans.
To show their strength, the Empire did something like ethnic cleansing with the victims of the Demihuman race.
The gaze of the refugee children is almost the same as the picture of hungry African children in the desert.
**
“Edera, are you happy living here?”
Nio invites Edera to sit on the long chair provided so that the refugees can relax while looking at the view of the Gate surrounded by the turtle fortress. Although as they relaxed, the Combat Group often annoyed them by passing with tanks and fighter jets causing loud noises.
All of that made the refugees feel intimidated, and still treated like Imperial people. Some people only considered the Combat Group that was training part of their duty to protect the refugees.
“I don't understand your question, Mr. Nio. I'm here to get proper treatment, proper food and shelter, and meet good soldiers like you. Imperial soldiers often levy taxes on us, slaves. The money we had was very little, and they took it all just because we were half animals.”
It was sad, and made people unable to answer the expressions of this girl. Edera said a reality that Nio did not see, but this young man could feel and imagine. What the Empire did to the people of the Demihuman race was like wanting to make them slowly go extinct.
Trying to escape to the Arevelk Kingdom that valued the Demihuman race, was a crime according to the people who had slaves of the half-animal race. The slave owners were allowed to kill them if they did not obey the order, it was a written law and greatly made the Demihuman race suffer. For some things, such as the war situation, there were many male slaves who were forced to fight.
If in Arevelk Kingdom there are still many Demihuman tribes scattered, even in this country there are some nobles from among Demihumans. However in the Empire, they were treated like an outcast group.
“Mr Nio, is there a race in your world like me?”
“Nothing, the humans that live in my home world are all ordinary humans. Ras Demihuman is the fantasy of the writers in my world. But now, in front of me was one of those fantasies. To be honest, a race like yours is amazing.”
“That's why there are so many white-robed people? The women who are from their section ordered us to undress!”
“That's just part of the check, they won't do any harm to you.”
Nio and Edera talked a lot until dinner time had arrived, and Nio was invited to eat with the refugees. Around the refugee camp, Nio did not see any members of his Squad. That meant they had already returned to the barracks and were doing night duty.
While walking towards where the refugees often ate together, Sigiz was seen walking in a hurry with a paper in his hand.
“Tuan Nio, it looks like there will be a new country.”
“Heh? What do you mean?”
To respond to that, perhaps the emergence of a new country that broke away from the Empire was a good thing, as surely the country would be weak from losing some of its power. Plus, one of the members of the Emperor family who would lead that new country, surely the Empire would be even weaker.
Sheyn is the commander of the Empire's strongest army, the Barisan of Roses. That means, inevitably the group must join the new country that will stand.
“Then, how will this war go?”