Liberty or Death (Tafatu-Shiysil)

[Greywall]

"Incoming!" 

The oncoming artillery strikes destroyed the nearby belltower sending it to rubble as Tafatu soldiers scrambled against machine gun and rifle fire. The war had come to Le Troi, weeks of losing the West had allowed the Shiysil military to reach the capital where General Omani and President Kendaya led a desperate defense. For the second time in a decade the city was under attack, but this time, no one was coming. 


The outer edge of the city was being pressed harshly, Omani only had 40,000 troops to muster up in the short time he had, Tafatu veterans were holding as best as they could while civilians fled East toward Ferville. Omani approached the President who refused to leave and bellowed, "It's time to go Charles!" the sense of urgency was clear the Tafatu would not be able to hold the city. Kendaya felt nothing but dread and failure, the liberation of Tafatu simply led to the oppression by the Shiysil and their SU overlords. 

"This is a nightmare, we just rebuilt the city." Kendaya said as he slowly picked himself up, placing his prosthetic leg and cane so he could walk. "We'll have to rebuild again then, and again till we are free. But for now, you're going South." Kendaya gave Omani an odd look, he received his answer immediately "get to the mountains, we're assembling the army there, i'll be right behind you." Kendaya nodded, but he knew this war would be a long one. The building was rocked by artillery,  "Time to go Charles" Omani said again with anger in his voice, "I will be back Omani, I swear it." Kendaya finally took his leave as the city was filled of the sounds of warfare, gunfire, explosions and screaming. Kendaya got inside a Studebaker car and was sped off to leave the city. 

At the front the sheer gap between Shiysil using SU supplied weapons and the various arms the Tafatu used was clear. Tafatu platoons used Marrish, Franneri, Ashinarian and UST rifles making logistical supply lines hell. Old Gatling guns were wheeled out and were laughably ineffective against the smaller machine guns the Shiysil now possessed. Omani only needed to buy time, let as many people leave as possible and build a gap between the front and the President. This would not be a war they would win at the start, it would have to be won in a long fight. 

[Greywall]

The hot summer sun burned above, but you couldn't tell in Le Troi.

Smoke bellowed from the city bellow and blocked it from view, fierce street fighting between the Tafatu and Shiysil forces had not stopped since the war began 3 months ago. Omani had denied the enemy the capital and kept the roads to the Central North opened, Kendaya was now South of the mountains with the Tafatu government living in exile in the city of Smenlisk.

Shiysil was still gaining an upper hand however, using aerial strikes to dislodge Tafatu defenders, Omani had nothing to fight them there. The Tafatu Republic still used cavalry to run messages back and forth and make sudden swift raids on the Shiysil lines.

Shiysil infantry columns would sometimes have the unfortunate fate of running into Marrish Beasthunters who now roamed the streets of Le Troi like specter beings clad in armor. The Shiysil quickly found out why they were referred to as, demons. Annoyed by the lack of progress, Shiysil command ordered a full on assault to seize the capital, hundreds to thousands of Shiysil soldiers began a hard push on the Tafatu lines within the city. Omani sighed, "They had to get smart or dumb eventually" he ordered his men to hold the line. They had to, it was all they could do.

[callmedelta]

Tafatu cavalry weren't the only cavalry in the theater. Major General Jordane's force of 6,250 Dragoons and 6,250 Carabineers rode south on the outset of the war, but they had been unable to find a good opportunity to act before now. A gap in the Shysil line had opened up long enough for Jordane's cavalry to fill in the gaps, splitting up into forces of 250 Dragoons and 250 Carabineers, raiding behind Shysil's lines with an unmatched ferocity. They hadn't liberated Tafatu from the butchers of the Union only to see Tafatu fall from the butchers of Shysil and Galra.

[Greywall]

The Raids on Shiysilian supply lines created an unfortunate situation in Le Troi, the large deployment of troops were rapidly eating food and medical supplies given the large battle for the Tafatu capital. Making things even more complicated was the additional surplus of Tafatu reinforcements. Omani began pushing Shiysil back to the outer edges of the city.

With Frannerre actively raiding their supply lines, Shiysil was forced to pull troops to regain control of the supply lanes or risk losing the battle for the Tafatu capital. Vokni had already taken their air support West to deal with the Frannerri counter assault. Omani swiftly send troops to reinforce Ferville knowing if it fell the Marse river could be bypassed.

For now the all out assault launched by Shiysil was now a bitter defense of what they had already seized of the capital. Rationing was ordered by the upper command as food and medicine came to a crawl.

[Greywall]

The Shiysil assault began to whimper out after a month of little to no gains, many Shiysil commanders were requesting a withdrawal back West to regroup but Vokni refused, the threat given to him by Azeri still hung fresh in his mind. As the assault withdrew to the contained lines, Shiysil artillery batteries ripped onto the capital striking with no real target. Omani thanked the Marrish and Frannerri who aided them in the battle before ordering his freshened forces to surge forward.

Then he heard of Ferville. It all changed then. 

If Ferville fell, the Galrans would go around the Marse and entirely circumvent any defense Central Touli had against the SU war effort. Omani knew if that happened the war would be lost, so he made a hard choice and sent the bulk of his reinforcements and equipment to Ferville. 

"If it falls, the Central region falls." he said as he poured himself some Lusatian vodka he kept in secret, the stress of the entire war showing its effects on him. He slumped into a nearby wooden chair, in the same damn hospital he commanded in during the rebellion. "If we don't hold out till the main continentals come...we're done. We can't win on our own." It was a realization that struck him hard, that his people as hard as they fought were merely fighting a delay in Shiysil so Galra could march right up to Ferville and lay siege to the one part of the Marse they could bypass. 

[callmedelta]

Major General Jordane looked over the reports, disappointed. They were a scattered mix of whatever Franerri and Tafatu news could be brought up, but there were a few things clear. His efforts here against Shysil seemed to be working. But Galra, Galra, Galra. News from Ferville was that Galra was flattening the city to rubble, but they'd take it at this pace. As much as Jordane didn't like stripping his combat potential here, Ferville was undoubtedly the more important front. But Galra was a much more dangerous foe than Shysil. Draining too little forces from Shysil could get them all killed for nothing. But strip too many, and in buying Ferville another month he may doom Le Troi. He ultimately sent a small group of 100 Dragoons to Ferville, ahead of a much larger force of 900 Dragoons and 1,000 Carabineers with more supplies, under the command of Colonel Leonardo DiMaggio. If the advance group found their raiding to be ineffective, then the whole force would move on to Ferville and assist the fighting there. If not, then the force would turn around back to Le Troi. In the meantime, the raids on the Shysil supply lines would continue