The Assault on Nellrae

[Artsy Astra]

With Spring production partially finished, reinforcements and a renewed resolve hit Marrish lines. A reinforcement group pulled from the reserves in garrison and the factory lines consisting of:
4,000 Standard Infantry
60 Armored Cars
100 Tankettes (TM-32's)
50 Landships
20 Heavy tanks

The Airforce would also send pilots up in the new wave of aircraft:
20 Starwolves (Bi-Plane Fighter)
10 Warsharks (Mono-Interceptor)
10 Recon Biplanes

When the new forces arrived, the 10 Heavy tanks would move to bolster the Eastern front, while another 10 Heavy tanks and 80 Landships moved to the west and the armored cars would be split between the East Center and West sections of the battle. The Infantry, the 10 remaining landships, and 5 remaining Heavy tanks would be sent into the city itself to bolster the line.

Marrish troops continued to booby trap areas and old positions as they made a slow fighting retreat deeper into the city. They were fighting for as much time as possible. Rear line being struck interrupted some of the more organized sections of the retreat creating small gaps that were shelled when proper lines of communication were re-solidified to keep Grinvel from seizing them. Marrish artillery continued to launch a desperate barrage to hold the enemy back and continued counterbattery fire on all fronts.

The airforce now bolstered renewed their aerial assault to try and open the way for their bombers to do some work specifically targeting enemy armor with artillery being on the backburner priority wise. Recon planes also flew missions over areas to try and find artillery positions or infantry and armor movements before they could do considerable damage to the line. It was the Warshark's time to shine as they flew in formation with the bombers to guard them while the Starwolves continued their assault.

The West continued holding as best they could against the armored onslaught pulling back to better entrenched positions and holding the line at the fort the best they could. They knew it was turning into a fools errand and they stayed regardless. They would fight as long as possible. Friendly armor arriving on the scene would attempt to engage enemy armor from a fair distance away actively using as many scouting elements as possible to find the enemy armor before engaging it while its focus was elsewhere if possible. If not, they would actively brawl them in an attempt to tie them up for another tank to maneuver.

To the East, when arrived it armor would attempt to plug the whole and surge into it guns blazing with as much artillery support and aircover they could get. Noticing Grinvel's reliance on signal flares as well, Marrish forces would attempt to confuse Grinvelian smoke use by using their grenade launchers to fire colored smoke at their positions attempting to cause their own support elements to fire upon them. They also used them to obscure their movements as best they could with a mix of smoke artillery bombardments, hand smoke grenades, and launcher smoke grenades.

If it weren't for the constant smell of gunpowder and smoke, one might be hit with the ostensible stench that generated by the sheer mass of viscera coating the landscape.

[Greywall]

The arrival of Summer stretched the battle of Nellrae into a months long brutal engagement, Grinvel and Marrlan hammered away at each other shredding the very ground beneath them. 

Grinvelian reinforcements from the Bordhan front arrived, fresh and rested following the firm collapse of the Bordhan region into Grinvelian control. This meant a consolidated front now met the Marrish at Nellrae, it didn't take long for Grinvel to push at the Marrish with these new additions to the assault. 

17,000 standard infantry
8,000 heavy infantry
2,000 mechanized standard infantry
150 light tanks
50 tankettes
100 armored cars
500 light infantry
300 howitzers
200 mortars
150 field guns


Additionally 40 more A-11 Luebrok fighters would enter the fray as the air war once again was contested by the Marrish. 


Mueller was reading the reports coming from Roskana, Fiegler was successfully pushing the Roskanan military into the North, having sent the sons of Mars running for their lives. He wasn't about to let the banished prince outperform him, "I want Nellrae by the end of the Summer." His order would be met by intensifying Marrish resistance at the front. 

The Eastern assault was stalled with the arrival of Marrish armor, light tank rounds simply bounced harshly against the new heavy tanks forcing these Grinvish tanks to find cover, "Call in air!" the moment flares were thrown so were Marrish smoke grenades, a mess of confusion ensued causing artillery rounds and A-5 bomb drops to go literally everywhere, decimating Grinvelian and Marrish alike. The Grinvelian pilots radioed back, "We can't rely on flares, the enemy are using smoke grenades. Send up scout aircraft!" 

The old 1920's GAR recon planes were slowly sent into the skies, it was quickly reported that the sheer scope of the battle had clearly outdone Flatrood. "We've got almost 40 exact miles of battlefield. Our boys are taking a beating but they are making progress." 

The Central city was an urban hell, rapid Grinvelian submachine guns simply made close up engagements an unfair slaughter for Marrish. So much to the point that it even impressed Galran observers who would write back to ship more thompson machine guns to the various fronts Galra was fighting on. At that point it was largely accepted that rifles were the best weapon for infantry, Grinvel had broken such a thought as they were rapidly taking over several city blocs and close to reaching the center of Nellrae.

Western forces crushed Marrish defenders at the remaining battlelines with the arrival of reinforcements from the West, Bordhan falling had utterly fucked them and Grinvel troops fresh from their recent victory in Heirss came screaming and yelling as they butchered the Marrish. Within a few minutes the marrish lines were smashed, Zhest heavy tanks and Khangberrer medium tanks punctured the final fortification lines as Grinvel infantry roared to life following the sound of an officer's whistle, they charged into the open facing the last of Marrlan's machine emplacements on the Western flank and swiftly overtaking them. 

Any Marrish wounded or failing to retreat were bayonetted to death by men lost in bloodlust and rage. Zhest heavy tanks held the main fortification as Ratbird light tanks and infantry pursued any Marrish that would flee. 

Challenging the new Marrish aircraft the A-11 fighter squadrons would attempt to dislodge enemy fighters from the skies in order to permit Grinvelian bombers striking South of Nellrae and hitting supply lines into the city, however the skies remained contested and evenly divided by the two sides. 

At the current pace, Nellrae was becoming a bloody battle that was costly for both sides, but the surrender of Bordhan pushed the good will of Marrish industrial reinforcements to waste. 

[Greywall]

Casualties

Grinvel: 1,400 standard infantry, 200 mechanized standard infantry, 30 light tanks, 10 A-11 heavy fighters, 2 heavy tanks, 1 medium tank. 
Marrlan: 1,900 standard infantry, 5 landships, 8 Star wolf fighters, 10 armored cars, 4 heavy tanks, 1 warshark, 1,000 militia, 200 heavy infantry. 

[Artsy Astra]

General Grendel took a good long look at the recon plane report of his flanks. The East held, but the West... well it may have been time to call a command staff meeting. Commander Jebediah Creek, now reinstated as a Kernel, along with other officers looked over their battle map. with grim expressions. They quietly discussed amongst themselves before the General himself entered the room. A silence held as he simply hunched over the Southern end of the map for a moment. "...Sir?" A young officer piped up breaking the silence. Grendel blinked and hesitated for a moment longer before saying. "I've put in the request." The room tone shifted as men and women stowed their cigarettes in ashtrays or simply stepped on them. "The retreat has been approved, get your men to lay traps gain." The young officer from before spoke up, "But sir! We can't leave now... that would mean-" The older gentleman cut him off swiftly, "Yes, Stansley I know. The goddamned Pionare herself endorsed it. We're to pullback and reinforce what remains of the Eastern front and send the other half of our forces to hold the capital." The younger man looked at the map for a moment before starting again, "But if we can buy just abit more time! Maybe divert forces sent to the Grecian front maybe that will hold us longer? Or call on the garrison forces?" Kernel Creek walked over and placed a soft hand on Stansley's shoulder. "It's over, chum. Best that would do is throw more meat into the grinder for nothing. This retreat is buying us time." Grendel finished off, "They'll have to kick us out still, but saving what men we have for later is what we need to do. I need your head on straight, all of your heads on straight, for this."

The Command meeting taking place in a field camp after having moved once again to avoid being spotted by enemy recon flights.




The retreat was ordered. Further forces from the city were sent to cover the weary Western flank defenders and the fort was trapped and set to blow by army engineers before it was abandoned. 2,000 Standard Infantry bolstered their pull into the retreating columns.  The heavy tanks and landships on the front did their best to hold off the Zhest's as the forts cannons fell silent. Marrish bombers attempted to strike them under Warshark cover.

The Eastern flank continued to hold as long as they could before beginning to break off and leave traps of their own. Mines and trapped equipment caches were left at old positions and camps giving a mild sense of hurried abandonment. It was still as orderly as possible with tanks covering the retreat and aircraft giving what cover they could.

The city itself was recessed into with haste as all manner of malicious gifts were left behind. Some engineers left wire cutters in some kinda of sick joke close to or in areas they had trapped. All areas that were vacated were completely flattened after a delay to allow for Grinnish forces to attempt to capitalize on the given ground. The shrapnel wall was walked back as sectors were abandoned as they made for the city limits to the South. Any and all methods of delay were used to keep them back as they pulled out.

Warsharks and Starwolves worked overtime to meet the A-11's head on and keep them back. Taking them high above the city just to goad them into chases through the crumbling high rises. Machine gun teams once again fired in volleys with help from Armored Cars and Tankettes machine guns, their .50 caliber machine guns rounds would reach much farther and do more damage if they struck their marks.

[Greywall]

Grinvel forces noticed the Marrish retreat and were filled with optimism, another victory for the reich. Front line troops engaged the Marrish until they left, allowing artillery batteries to hammer them as they fled South. Any celebration would be cut short as fire teams of Grinvelian infantry would be struck by traps across the city. 

"They have fucking laid the entire place with bombs, send in engineers and clear them out." Despite the tension, the Grinvel military had won another major battle. By taking Nellrae is opened the road right to Harbaville and total conquest of Marrlan. Fiegler's success in Roskana signaled that the Northeastern fronts would be a total victory. Grinvel was displaying a military might the rest of the SU simply didn't have. 

Mueller was pleased, ordered the captured Marrish to be sent to the Galrans via rail. He had received two important messages from Galra, import all non humans to Galra and to make a spearhead to Termingrad. 

"Termingrad...So the Galrans need us to win this war for them. It's so close, the end of the war, the end of this dreadful existence with the Rosarks and the beginning of a greater Reich. 

Grinvel would clear out Nellrae and begin preparations to assault Harbaville and send half its invasion force across the Southern border into Koi. Mueller issued an order for more trucks to be built, the supply lines were already stretched far and to go this far South was already a tall order. Mueller was well aware of how risky the long stretch was, but to take Termingrad would end the war. Starve the CN of Staol and force Koi into accepting SU occupation. 


"Dear Ana, 

We have taken Nellrae, this city is massive. Larger than Stahlberg, though I imagine the North has larger cities near the Reichstag. Still its a shame to see this place ravaged by the war, the Marrish fought heroically for their home. More so here than before. We're taking Marrlan swiftly, a year later and we have been told we're on their capital. It won't be long my dear before this dreaded war ends and i'll be home with you and the babies again. I'm told that food rationing was lifted for a moment. I hope you were able to get some meat, the Galrans haven't been very forthcoming with their food supplies like they promised I suppose. Maybe the Gaelics will trade with the Reich after the war ends...I don't know. 

I saw several Marrish, not humans like us, they were as if fish and insect being loaded onto a train. I asked where they were going and I was simply told. 'No where good'. What is Mueller doing? Taking orders from Galra? Not our rightful Kaiser? Something is wrong Ana, please. Take my salary and store it somewhere safe this month and here on. Something bad is going to happen.

I'll be sent South to Harbaville soon, i've been assigned to a heavy weapons unit. The 99th regiment. The deadliest in the Reich. I'm sending you a picture of me in my new uniform. I hope you like it. 

Love Always, 

Gerrick Von Talbh"

Gerrick in his new heavy trooper uniform with a semi automatic rifle

Grinvel was making strides in its military equipment standardization as well. Heavy units all now had the semi automatic rifle, the new machine gun was implemented replacing the old hulking GSG and Grinvel armor divisions operated as their own units apart from the infantry. In the coming days, Grinvel aircraft would test the South probing Harbaville before the massive assault on the Marrish capital.