Battle of Novya Buhkta

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The city of Novya Buhkta was a wealthy rich city in Southern Touli, headquarters to the UST railroad and several companies this city powered the Union economy for decades. It was now a fortress, the mayor spent all of his time preparing for war and keeping his army of 18,000 men behind the fortifications they built in the last two years. He wasn't convinced about Okeena being capable of winning the war and knew the war was being lost. 

The only part he didn't cut off was the rail line to support the UST forces in Pozhal, but it had been two weeks. No one had returned and he was becoming more paranoid by the second.

[VoxApocrypha]

The League's forces marched more or less ahead of the Bian, their scouts sent ahead to bring back the best intel they could on the city and its surrounding defenses. The Kithium marched the entire way singing war songs, a fair lot of them having started to decorate their fur in ritualistic fashion with their own blood or that of others, or with ink they'd stolen from the cities - the properties of Kithium fur generally meant it'd remain that way their entire life, as fur didn't fall out in cold climates, it remained deeply thick to preserve body temperature. Bad habits that their leadership didn't care much about, given how many bad habits the Kithium army had developed from fighting superior opposition in superior positions, and a lot of the old Roskanan blood resurfacing.

The Kithium army had stolen a fair lot of maps, and a couple of them from the Bian too since the natural klepts had a good reason and did not particularly care much about stealing up-to-date intel. They had recon elements operating in the night to chart out the furthest edges of visibility to the city and its defenders, and the army itself began to move in just beyond that so that they were able to pick an area that looked both like it was a relatively weak point in the defenses, and was effectively both close enough most of its manpower would be funneled away by the train attack, and that it would be difficult to quickly reinforce.

Consisting of most of the Kithium's large force - an army of 300,000, equipped with most of the field guns and artillery that the Kithium had brought with them and captured in Pozhal and before at the battle of Ishi'Kaalak'shi. Almost all the marines, supported by most of the light infantry they'd brought with them - and finally, the dragoons, their main breakthrough force. Almost 1500 field guns and 40 Gaelic howitzers, as well as 2000 mortars and who knew how many gattling guns by now, supported by their maxims.

The forces on the train would be the main unit for the assault itself, and the Kithium army was waiting for the Bian to give them the go ahead before they launched an all-out assault against the city.

Nihlus said simply, "If the train plan fails, and there's a decent chance it very well might, we're going to storm the city. It's in our way, and its the last major stop on the way to Noscovo. I have my orders, and while I'd like to take it intact, and if I have to blow through that city by leaving it a smoldering ruin then I will."
The Kithium on said train waited, being all marines this time.

[callmedelta]

General Lumine looked at the army the Kithium had arrayed. He had no doubt - it could march all the way to Noscovo nearly unopposed. That was good thing, after all, the war would be ending sooner. But he was on Razu, saw the destruction the Kithium could bring to the Union. Was that worth it in this instance? He had read what the Union army did in Tafatu, and General Lumine could very easily imagine a similar fate befalling Novya Buhkta and Noscovo. Did two wrongs make a right? Perhaps, but General Lumine would at least do one thing for the Union first. His 10,000 Marines and 200 artillery were loaded onto the train, with naval assets preparing ot move on Novya Buhkta, while General Lumine sought out the leaders of the Bian and the Kithium armies. They should give the city an offer of surrender, rather than just march in and begin the battle.

[VoxApocrypha]

The Kithium army's leader, that being Nihlus, did not herself bother to attend, rather sending an adjutant.
The Adjutant would in turn however express that the Kithium were considering something similar, and had initially intended to starve the city out if it didn't accept an initial offer of surrender.
The Kithium army itself continued its march to Novya Buhkta, while the marines on the train by and large kept to themselves, disinterested in interacting with either the Bian or the Franerri. Having been privy to the slaughter the League perpetrated at Ishi'kaalak'shi and participants of it in most cases, the Kithium were understandably rather distant, and detached. Most of them were still processing the events of the past month and a half. The rest were just anti-social, not sharing a common language with either group and having an inherited natural distance from the descendants of Lusatia as they did Lusatia itself.

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The train began its approach toward the town, armored with metal plates and a few guns prepared in the cars being towed the engineers loyal to Zhang signaled the town ahead of their arrival. The UST assumed it to be their forces coming for supplies or to drop off wounded, it wouldn't be until the train was closer they noticed it being covered in iron plates and not slowing down. "Something is wrong! Signal them to stop!" a Union commander called out, but the train didn't respond. Zhang and his captains began yelling to those onboard to get ready as rifle and gatling gun fire began to pelt the locomotive.

By the time they could fire their artillery the train was well within the town's defenses, "Fire!" Zhang ordered and the guns on the train began firing at UST forces disrupting the heavily fortified position. A loud explosion at the front struck the steam engine hard, a UST field gun struck it shattering the armor and steam bellowed out slowing the train down. "Get ready to disembark!" The train came to a stop in the middle of town as Bian infantry leapt out to engage Union soldiers scrambling to deal with the enemy that was now behind their lines. The train fixed guns continued to fire giving the infantry onboard much needed covering fire.

From beyond the town, Captain Fong ordered the rest of Bian forces to begin their assault where the train punched through. "We have a hole in their defenses, don't waste it!" the Bian charged with fixed bayonets to seize the town and take the last of the Southeastern region away from the Union.

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 234 infantry, 43 field guns
Bian: 34 infantry 1 steam locomotive

[VoxApocrypha]

The Kithium on the train were, by and large, better equipped to handle the locomotive coming to a abrupt and sudden stop whilst being pelted with bullets. With some units providing cover fire from the train itself, the rest of the marines began to file out in organized fashion. They cleared their way forwards with hand-bombs and bolt-action rifle fire, and as well began to wheel gattling guns off of the train with them, moving them forwards with the squads as the assault force started to press out into the town primarily to the north and north-east, working to close the gap and to put pressure on the inner defenses of the east and northern areas to draw as much manpower away as possible so that the main assault would be able to crash into the town full-force.

The Kithium army of which was amassed outside of the town would swiftly move into action as the fighting inside of the town itself began, though only 100,000 of them did so, being primarily light infantry.
The rest were given a new order by Nihlus, of whom led them away - divert and bypass Novya Buhkta, to march towards Noscovo, all 200,000 of these forces proceeding towards Noscovo with only half of their field guns and artillery, mortars and other equipment - having left it for the other force to use in this task. They'd then have them catch up with them after at Noscovo, while they secured a route through the area to funnel their forces back through later.

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UST

Union forces were in utter chaos, the train shattered their lines and the assault from outside was overwhelming them with ease. They quickly were falling back into the city as the forward defenses began to falter. Union field guns fired off a few rounds before having to be abandoned as infantry fell back under Gatling gun covering fire. The mayor was in a panic watching his prepared defenses shattered, "get all we have around the main square! Do not let them in!" Union soldiers would get into prepared barricades and open fire deep in the city square already at their last defensive line.

Bian

Bian forces overwhelmed the Southern outer defensive line and linked up with the train forces pushing into the town square, Union forces didn't put up much of a fight til they got to their barricades. Bian forces were bogged down relaying fire back at the barricades and moving to attack it from every direction possible.

[callmedelta]

With plans for a surrender dashed, there was little else for the Franerri Marines on the train to do than to join in the battle. Seeing where the Kithium forces were headed, the marines made the decision to head towards the center of Novya Buhkta, searching for any form of civilian or military authority. Repeaters, Gatlings, and artillery fired away in the chaos of battle. Meanwhile, outside the city, the 10,000 Standard Infantry and 100 artillery pushed forward into the city along the rail line, trying to link up with the marines. While all of this was happening, out on the ocean, the Franerri Battleships on the ocean aimed their guns at Novya Buhkta and fired. They were extremely conservative in how they did so; they wanted to minimize the risk of friendly fire as much as possible, as well as wanting to keep damage of the city itself to a minimum.

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Casualties

UST: 4,302
Kithium: 2,032
Bian: 300
Frannerre: 102