Scathing of South [UST - Kithium League]

[VoxApocrypha]

VENESHY OFFENSIVE
SCATHING OF THE UST
KITHIUM LEAGUE - versus! - UNION OF SOUTH TOULI

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Gathering Storm.

 Several months of preparations were made. 
A few months prior the offensive in the south had landed on Razu. It was their turn, delayed and told to hold in place by command as they waited for news from Razu. 
But this morning, came the time to ramp up their preparations, to prepare for a war of retribution. The general sat up in her bed in the mid-morning, waking up after a nap, taken in her little free-time. She'd stand up and take a bit to dress before she was out and into the command tent, standing by the courier of whom would hand them a message off-handedly, with her reading as she as well, listened with a trained ear for anything important. When she finished, she tucked it away, and took the Courier to the side, grabbing a pencil and paper. 

 The invasion of the UST's coastline had been postponed, at least for now. Those assets had been, weeks ago, redirected up to her and given her what was basically the full force of the League's military. She had been having a managerial hell trying to keep it all organized and to set it up for a proper assault, and it had been straining the local economy too - which she had tried to remedy by having her soldiers assist the locals in the meantime as part of a sort of program to maintain order, teach responsibility and train younger troops (and to keep the mout of trouble), and as well to keep things moving. Soldiers always needed distractions, work, so they didn't go soft and lollygag. 

 With all those assets she had now 100k troops in a reserve formation at a number of army camps and supply depots, which she would need for their next steps forward. She as well, had another 100k, though they were mostly logistical troops operating trucks and horse drawn carriages to move ammo and such around. 

 "Come." She'd say. The courier, dragged with her practically, listened. 

"Yes, General?" The human woman asked. 

"Take this message back to command." She'd say, handing them a quickly written note. A request for additional mobilized forces to be sent to follow up behind her force, which was about to move out. The courier nodded, and turned, making her way back out to their horse while the general then went back and began to give orders to her command-staff, ordering them to mobilize their formations for the march across the border, only an hour away on foot. She had three formations spread across a span of about twelve miles however, and they'd be spread out further once they tried to hit their targets. 

 Some scouting had been done before hand, but she had in part figured out on her own what was likely happening. 
The road had at least some guard elements on it, and she'd check to verify how much was actually in the way of her advance with scout cavalry units, but she pictured it had to be at the least enough soldiers to try to stop the likely revolving door of revolutionary gangs and rebels trying to sabotage the flow of supplies to the North to Ferville. 

 She didn't care about the Tafatu, at not much anyway, even if she sympathized with their plight. 
She was driven by hate. Her mother had been murdered on Razu and her father shortly after had died of complications of the wounds they inflicted, and she felt little to nothing but a deep and burning hate for her enemy to be. Others were not like her, but everyone in the League usually held a similar view as she did. Which made it easy to feel she was among true company that similarly felt as rawly genocidal as she did in that moment, thinking back to history for a moment more before she refocused on the present. 

 It took two days, but once mobilized fully, the Kithium army began to advance towards the border.

---

Action.
Numbers Listed in this Thread



With 250,000 soldiers on the march, the additional 100k in reserves were following behind as the logistical element to which was supporting their forces. Another 100k was left at the bases, and once the letter reaches them they'll begin to move out, though it'll take a fair while for them to reach up to the jumping-off point/phase line of the main army. There were three major strike forces, of which all of them now had somewhere around 80k soldiers. 

Within each of the three strike elements would be 15,000 Marines, the spearhead of the offensive action - as was their purpose, being among the better trained and equipped of the League's forces. Behind them, would be 20,000 Dragoons, and then 10,000 Carabineers. Drawn behind them via horse-drawn carriages and trucks, they were bringing 1000 mortars, and 500 field guns per unit, with the personnel needed to operate them. And intermixed with these three groups would be 40,000 light infantry. Following closely behind, would be part of the logistical train. 

Each group had its own semi-independent command structure to which would be able to operate more or less on its own, to capitalize on individual initiative. They had as well a significant number of couriers to aid them in consistent communication, with the General herself bringing a large contingent of Cult of Mars couriers with her to ensure that her messages get where they need to go. 

 The three forces advance together until they reach a point 10 minutes from the border. Each group would dispatch 100 Dragoon scouts ahead of them in groups of ten to perform recon duties. 
Then five minutes after they are gone, they begin their march across the border, as the dragoons raced ahead to perform their recon mission, hoping to utilize their speed to be able to out maneuver the enemy and to quickly acquire any information they could before returning back to base. 

[Greywall]

Veneshy was a miserable little town, surrounded by farm flats and dull weather the town was just a link in the long difficult logistical system of the UST. The force of 100,000 Taronki left to guard the road from the tribals and now Bian rebels had several checkpoints and patrol zones to make sure the flow of supplies continued, though now it was becoming harder and harder to get anything shipped with the blockade strangling the UST. 

Veneshy served as a primary base for what was designated as the 11th Army of the UST. 20,000 men fortified here with little over 40 field guns and gatling guns. The rest of the force was spread out in the pre mentioned checkpoints. The men were commanded by Commander Zafin Tuka a veteran of the Kithium wars and a rather plain example of UST brutality in the upper echelon of its military. Tuka sapped the local farms for his massive force to feed them and conscripted local workers to build the fortifications needed to defend the town and checkpoints. He had grown restless in his quiet post as the Bian hadn't moved far enough West to threaten the road and the tribal assault on the 6th Army failed. 

That quiet was shattered by the panicked stamping of horse hooves riding hard toward the town, the riders were shaken hard and exhausted. "What is it!? Bian rebels?" Tuka asked, his riders still on their horses trying to get enough air into them to speak shook their heads no, "It's the Kithium, they crossed the border and are pressing on our Southern checkpoints! They vastly outnumber us." Tuka grinded his teeth in disapproval, he hated the Kithium "Roskana's trash have come trying to find an easy victory. They'll find death." The 11th Army sent out its riders North and West, Tuka would need reinforcements from Juaz and the 6th if he was going to fight a force that was as large as his scouts reported. For now he began laying down defenses around the town and ordering his Northern checkpoints to dispatch additional men. 30,000 men from the Northern checkpoints would be assembled and begin marching to Veneshy, locals would be drafted to dig trenches and erect wooden palisades for cover. If there was one thing Tuka learned from his time fighting the cats it was they were incredibly overconfident. "Matters not their numbers, they'll splash on our defenses like water on a cliffside. And when we're done men, you'll find no warmer coat for winter, than that of a Kithium's hide." 



In the South the Kithium strike decimated the checkpoints they reached, but riders still traveled South to reach the Southern region for reinforcements. A few checkpoints South of Veneshy would attempt to hold off the invasion, using the cover of the makeshift forts along the road but ultimately it was going to be a difficult situation to turn around for them. 

[VoxApocrypha]

The Kithium were brutal and focused in their attacks, rather than spreading themselves as wide as they felt possible to effectively bog the entire route down, once they had cleared out an area, they staged within that zone and would establish a blocking force of about 50,000 soldiers, mostly their light infantry with around 300 field guns.

50,000 troops were left behind them in groups to consolidate their gains, among them a number of their couriers would as well remain, to fascilitate rapid communicate.
The other 150,000 would start to sweep up the road towards Veneshy as one large force, moving only as fast as their artillery could bombard ahead of them, refusing to over-extend themselves if it was possible and making an effort to not outrun the cover of their guns, of which were advancing by groups of three - with one group providing cover, and then two others moving up, with one stopping to setup cover while the other two then would move up to continue to provide covering fire to their advancing infantry and skirmishing dragoons.

Couriers and scouts would be sent out to try to find the rebels, with the goal of establishing alliances to draw them into the fight themselves, and have them assist them in holding back the UST's reinforcements, and as well to hopefully get them to provide some aid with manpower in exchange for assistance in gaining their freedom and perhaps even supplies of weapons.

[Greywall]

UST checkpoints south of Veneshy in the path of the advancing kithium were decimated quickly forcing a mass retreat to veneshy itself. Attempts to fight the advancing force were in vain.

Around veneshy itself was a growing network of trenches, wooden defenses and UST infantry funneling in from the defeated checkpoints and northern checkpoints.

Riders arrived at Zaliboga and the 6th army within the mountains detailing the new warfront. Messengers sent via train to noscovo requesting immediate reinforcements departed while Udeike begrudgingly let 45,000 troops and 200 field guns leave his command to March to veneshy through the country and rural roads. His depleted force risked increased insurgency and losing the mountain range but the kithium invasion now took priority.

The riders coming into Juaz were informed taronki had moved west, they were sent to do’rville and ferville to grab anything they could.

All in all, the situation wasn’t ideal, even if the south allowed deployment of the remaining 250,000 troops okeena raised via conscription it meant the entire UST army was now deployed at capacity with no reserves left. The war had resulted in heavy losses for them and the new front drastically threatened the war in the north.

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST 189
Kithium 45

[VoxApocrypha]

The Kithium force moved with coordination and planned efficiency.
They'd been building to this moment for two decades. Murderous vengeance was a coursing fire in the veins of every soldier that marched across the border, and every single one of them had a debt or another they sought to repay, in blood and gore. It would be here that the first of the deathsquads arose. In truth this concept had been running quietly through the ranks of the enlisted forces, and even among the officer corps it had gained traction. With no real reason to stop it from raging out of control, the officer corps as a whole turned a blind eye to what had turned to a murderous vendetta against the armed servicemen of the UST.

Any and all who took up rifles against the League wouldn't live to regret it for long.
Kithium forces in areas they secured scoured towns and villages for UST soldiers and dragged them from their hiding places, often brutally disembowling them and leaving their corpses on the streets, carrying handguns and large kukris. They kept away from the average civilian, mostly, opting often to just kick them back into their homes or into another house, or if they raidd a home to throw them into a room and keep them in there while they did their deeds. Stealing was prevelant too however, petty theft not unheard of in war time but not a welcome sight among what was a professional army. Dealt with often swiftly it wasn't unheard of to see a soldier being given a reprimand for thieving from the locals.. but in truth, even the officers didn't care enough to stop it all, and anyone dumb enough to get caught in the act was exactly that - dumb enough to get caught.

The Death Squads for the most part were not interested in stealing.
They were interested in cold blooded murder, and they performed such on any who stood in their path, wearing the cold gaze and black cloth around their muzzles and faces that made only their eyes visible. Their uniforms were a darker grey than that of the baseline infantry, or they had been, stained crimson with blood and viscera in many cases, or simply dirty from the fighting already.

-------
The Kithium army continued its march, the forces it left behind it to secure its supply lines and flanks performing their own duties as the massive force continued its brutal march to the north, obliterating entire checkpoints and harrassing retreating units with first artillery fire, and then fast riding Dragoons with sticks of TNT in high explosive bundles, and rifle fire. If these units, the raiders, encountered substan tial resistance they would immediately break contact and ride back, before artillery fire would be used some time later to clear out that area, focusing many of their guns on it before then sweeping that area with infantry.

A force of about 5000 Dragoons broke with the main force, and swept to the North-East, to flank around and to try to start harrassing some of the forces further north of the main advance, while the army began to move two artillery units into firing positions at once, with a third then moving behind them, changing the intensity of the attacks to be twice as harsh with their artillery while the advance then slowed once more.

To the south, the force that had been left behind to guard their flanks began to establish a line of defenses to maintain the attack's lines of supply from the League to the Veneshy Offensive's continuously moving and growing frontline. This was still however, relatively quick, and they were making inevitable progress towards Veneshy.
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In the League itself, the 100k reserves, mostly being additional dragoons, carabineers and some more artillery with another 30,000 marines would begin to march for the border to join the fight, with new orders being relayed to them from the general that told them to join the southern garrison to halt the UST's reinforcements.

Overall, 20,000 Dragoons, 25,000 Carabineers, and another 30,000 Marines would be on the way, with an additional 500 mortars and 200 field guns being brought with them, and further logistical staff to ensure that these weapons were manned, supplied and able to operate. An additional 10,000 Engineers began to work on digging out roads for the trucks they'd need to deliver the supplies to follow, linking those roads to those they found in the UST, though they were mostly made with compacted dirt using shovels and plows with horses and a few of the tractors they had been given years ago for this task, though being modified farming tractors they were not the most efficient for the task.

[Greywall]

North

Do’rville and ferville scrapped together roughly 220,000 troops, 600 field guns to link up with another 7,000 infantry, 6,500 carabiners, 8,000 dragoons and 2,000 field guns left at Juaz. They began their March south to reinforce Veneshy and confront the kithium invasion.

They encountered the dragoon force and engaged with harsh impunity. Many of them armed with Kumo guns would fire several rounds off with ease while their artillery countered any field guns brought to support the flanking maneuver.

Veneshy

With most of the southern checkpoints not putting much of a fight all of them were ordered to empty into the city defense. About 75,000 troops and 300 field guns withdrawn into dug in and hastily built defenses around the city. Once the kithium came within range of the artillery they would open fire beginning the defense of the city.

Almost every checkpoint south was destroyed resulting in nearly 30,000 casualties from the rapid advance of the kithium. When word of the death squads got out it rattled UST soldiers to refrain from surrendering as death awaited them regardless if they fought or not.

South

250,000 troops of the 12th army linked up with 350 field guns and 30,000 guardsmen from the pozhal campaign and began marching northward to engage the kithium vanguard. Once they reached the enemy they spread their massive numbers out to flank the defenders while artillery slammed them. They outnumbered the marines vastly and fought fiercely as this was now a war to defend their homeland.

West

The 6th army crossed over the heated fields west of Veneshy and situated themselves a couple miles away. They would be used as reserves for when the main kithium force arrived to flank form the rear and break the enemy assault up. Despite their poor morale the concept of the homeland being invaded was very different from subjugation of northerners.

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST 28,000
Kithium 589

[VoxApocrypha]

North

The Dragoons didn't opt to stick around for drawn out attacks, simply aiming to harass - they moved away the moment it felt like they might be overwhelmed, stopping only to volley of two or three shots each from their rifles before they withdrew. In some places, they would lay ambushes for the UST using sticks of dynamite, and dash away if they damn well could using their horses so that the explosives could disorganize and disrupt their opponents further. The artillery as well battered only select area with short volleys, before they'd often try to move to avoid counter-battery fire. This wasn't always successful - it was difficult to quickly move guns of such a size, and a few batteries were caught before they could fully evacuate or evacuate at all, leading to the loss of a fair few field guns among the many lost dragoons. Still they kept at it, though not in significant numbers.

Many Dragoon squads would elect to try to potentially go around the enemy force, to see if they could locate, and disable or destroy the artillery of their enemy, often opting to use night-time darkness to perform these runs into the dark.

Veneshy

The Kithium's main force would arrive sometime soon, but they didn't make their presence felt for a time. Instead, probing attacks with dragoons, infantry and some artillery were made against the city's defenses to map out the location of enemy fortifications and to concentrate their artillery on specific areas that the Kithium felt were weak.

 Dragoons and Carabineers were as well sent out to perform recon and patrol outside of the area of the battle itself to keep watch of their flanks, and as well, couriers sent back to request further reinforcements from the League again, though it'd be a fair while before those reinforces did arrive in all likelihood, as they'd have to be mobilized if they were not already.

 They moved their guns up in the midst of the night, and began a withering barrage sometime around what owuld be 4:00 AM, targeting one particular section of the city with the 2/3rd majority of their guns, while the other 3rd would be focusing in on trying to strike any guns that responded, lobbing shells against them while Kithium infantry and mortars attacked every other position that sat next to their target of choice. Their mortars would be the first to engage alongside the artillery, dropping large amounts of shells into the no-mans-land dirt and blowing holes from the soil, again and again until the barrage came to a close and innumerable tears in the earth itself remained - of which soldiers would race to occupy as makeshift cover and start to dig out fighting positions with spades and shovels within those foxholes.

South

The Kithium were a far different enemy than the one they had faced on Razu.

Organized, aggressive, and vicious.
Even outnumbered they fought like rabid animals, driven on by their officers of whom were in the trenches and trees with them, using everything from rifles and bayonets, to sticks of dynamite, to stones and their own hands when it came down to it. This was to buy time for a particularly nasty trick they had brought with them, a lot of explosives to place, wire to lay, and blasting machines to setup. They gave no ground that wasn't paid for in gallons of blood for both sides, and the Kithium were determined to maximize the '3 to 1' ratio and make those losses reflect it for their enemy. Even so, the defensive line would begin to slowly move back as the Kithium slowly secceded ground, ground they took the time to trap.

They did not leave an area without bathing it in blood too, and as they moved back and the UST would move in, demolitions teams used preplaced explosives left under the ground in various areas in the prepared defenses to then destroy those lost impropmtu fortifications once the UST moved its forward squads onto them, destroying them wholesale before the artillery would continue a barrage against those while the units would attempt to make their escapes. The slow tactical retreats continued, until they reached the best point to hold - a secondary line of foxholes, dugouts, fighting positions made with wooden logs and felled trees, and more booby traps.

This was were they'd refuse to be pushed out.
The Dragoons and Carabineers joined that defending force, the majority of their number now dismounting or racing along the line to try to reinforce points under attack. The Kithium's artillery would fire nonstep, soldiers using every gun at their dispossal and their abundance of mortars to lay into their opposition with brutal volleys that lasted often jsut longer than they had too, churning the earth into loose soil as plants and trees were blasted out of the ground, the scarce buildings around them destroyed, and any positioned that was marked for a strike being hit by often four to eight guns, one to two kithium artillery teams. This is where they'd hold their ground, refusing to back away.

The Kithium's reserves, ordered to the south specifically to reinforce this area, moving towards the line. A courier was sent ahead to reach the garrison, already in contact and to get a picture of the situation before hand so that they'd be able to coordinate with them.

[Greywall]

North

The dragoons harassed the advancing UST forces but their own cavalry surged forward in pursuit and in an attempt to storm the enemy artillery. With their larger numbers and infantry support they quickly swept through the territory and continued their advance South toward Veneshy. 
Infantry companies would spread out several miles during the advance leaving a rear guard of 8-9,000 troops to protect the large detachment of artillery desperately needed South. 

Veneshy 

Kithium artillery rained down on the city striking some of the wooden palisades the UST built to defend it, UST artillery returned fire gauging where the Kithium artillery were. Infantry prepped themselves in the trenches and defenses in case they launched an assault. Riders were sent to scout and gauge the enemy however they could, but the city needed reinforcements to win the day. 

When day broke they got their wish, artillery fire rained from the West onto the Kithum forces, the 6th army had arrived. Setting their artillery up and infantry in defensive positions in front of it. They opened full salvo onto the Kithium forces hitting them from their exposed flank. Cheering from the city could be heard as the 6th's arrival was the first sign that the city wasn't alone. 

South

The initial tactics of the kithium leaving explosives and traps hindered the UST advancement, for a moment. The Sheer size of the deployment of the 12th Army now simply isolated the Kithium they encountered and ordered artillery strikes before moving in with infantry to finish them off. After reaching a more stubborn line of defenders the 12th Army broke into a trident with a large center group striking with most of the 12th's artillery support, the western flank swinging northwest to strike from the side and the eastern strike group cutting a dagger right into their supply lines to the East and North. 

Guardsmen who were deemed disposable were sent in the first wave to overwhelm the Kithium, in a long drawn out fight the 12th Army could simply storm their position with time. 

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 294
Kithium: 593

[VoxApocrypha]

North

The Kithium cavalry would Intercept their counterparts, actively preventing them where possible from catching up with their own artillery. If they got past them, the infantry acting as a rearguard woudl engage to hold them back, with a few actively using small sticks of dynamite to interfer with charges.

Veneshy

The battle at Veneshy became more intense, and the Kithium began to switch the focus of their artillery, actively shifting the focus of their field guns to attack enemy artillery when possible, while they used their mortars to attack enemy positions when possible, and to support their infantry in establishing fortifications to attempt to ensure the siege could continue on, and that htye could not be forced out easily nor without the UST being utterly and completely thrashed in trying to do so.

South

The Kithium wouldn't allow themselves to be encircled repeatedly if they could help it, opting often to abandon positions even under fire if it was possible to make quick escapes to the treeline, with supporting infantry further back actively targeting anyone who tried to intercept their withdrawals. The Kithium then brought out another trick they'd been keeping back, as when the next line of hard defenses was truck, they finally brought down wooden logs covering firing positions, to let the gattling guns do their work. The assaults by infantry were met swiftly by this intense barrage of bullets fed by teams of operators pouring rounds down the top into a funnel that would spill those rounds into the primitive gravity fed feed system, cranking shots out quick and hard.

The Kithium's field gun artillery would start trying to actively trade salvos with their opposition, while the mortars were given entirely to ground support duties, trying to ensure that the defenses could hold for a time longer before they gave anymore ground voluntarily. Trenches and more were still being dug even as the fighting continued, and more soldiers poured into the fortifications and got behind basic sandbag entrenchment.

As the fighting drew on, the couriers met, and messages exchanged.
The reinforcements were moving in fast, their cavalry racing ahead as well as their marines, moving without support so that they could slam hard and brutal into the eastern dagger of the UST's forces, arriving in the night and slamming with the full weight of a combined infantry and cavalry assault, with teams of Festria dragging gattling guns with them and setting them up as quick as they could to try to halt the advance of their opposition.

[Greywall]

North

The sheer size of the Northern detachment would continue marching Southward, the resistance placed by the Kithium annoyed them but as UST cavalry engaged the Kithium it allowed infantry divisions to catch up and lay down fire. If this kept up the UST forces would be able to reach the Kithium artillery and clear a path to Veneshy.

Veneshy

The UST in the city remained in their defenses, they tried to gauge the strength of the enemy before making a proper move so their field guns would return fire. On the Western flank the 6th Army continued to hammer the Kithium with their artillery and established a line of communication to the city to determine what actions they would need to take. The entire battlefield was simply an exchange of canon and howitzer fire.

South

The fighting in the South became a full on battlefield. The UST forces found themselves bogged against Kithium defenders but still applied pressure on them, infantry companies slowly pushed up against the onslaught of Kithium enemy fire. As gatling guns were deployed entire advancements were halted forcing stagnated firefights. The Western flank made its move on the Kithium flanking them and their attempts at setting up defenses with artillery support.

Western assaults peppered Kithium positions hard with artillery barrages before sending infantry waves to force the Kithium into either consolidating their forces in the center to allow for maximum artillery barrage effect or force them into the Eastern flank.

Eastern forces swept around and came down from the North assaulting the Kithium from that end, it wasn't total encirclement but they quickly and rapidly attacked to overwhelm their enemy.

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 394
Kithium: 742

[VoxApocrypha]

North

The Kithium would opt to do something different. Moving much of their infantry into the way of their enemy, they pulled their artillery back, and began to return it to Veneshy. Then they began to draw back their forces overall, fighting as they made their way back to the main body of Kithium troops, of which were digging in and digging in deep, making traps and fortifications anywhere it was possible to make dugouts, cut down trees and rip up the land to lay down a new and nasty trick they had - razor-vine. Effectively, it was barbed wire, and interlaced with beartraps, covering entire sections of roads and hidden by leaves and natural debris.

They'd engage any pursuing force with the absolute maximum force they could muster, gattling guns and field guns, infantry with rifles and javelins wrapped with dynamite, and grenades of various types and sizes, as well as mortar fire. Then from dugouts, when the enemy got bogged down, spider holes flew open and Kithium infantry began to use bayonets, rifles and hand-bombs to attack from the flanks and within the UST's own advance. It was not the best plan, but if it absolutely mauled their enemy and slowed or even stopped the enemy's advance it was definitively worth it to them.

Veneshy

The Kithium would continuously start moving their field guns around to avoid having them be stationary for long, leaving only half in position to act at the best of times, but it was enough that they could apply responding fire to enemy artillery when needed, before they began to move again and other batteries would answer counter-battery fire with their own counter-battery fire. Mortars continued to drop rounds on the positions outside the city, themselves moving too, while more mortars slammed down into the city itself now too, blowing apart some outlying houses and buildings with the strikes.

South

The Eastern forces found themselves able to strike from the rear of the Kithium's lines, but this was a short opportunity.

The Cavalry of the Kithium's reinforcements hit them first, slamming into the rear of the UST's flanking attack before the marines followed behind them, and attempted to force a breakthrough to their embattled comrades, of whom still resisted the enemy with fanatical determination, holding nothing back as artillery fired as fast as possible, gattling guns roared, and rifles barked. The Reinforcements would be among the newly equipped and trained forces given the M4 bolt action rifle, and their new Maxim guns, as well given bullet-shields to protect the crew, though many of them were being carried by two man teams of ammo and stand carriers, and those carrying the guns themselves, with a squad to support them in relocating and using the weapons.

When hit from the west they refused to allow themsleves to be corralled, and they pushed back as hard as they possibly could with as much force as they could manage, their own artillery firing back at the UST's while mortars and rapid fire weapons were relocated to halt the advance further. The Kithium threw all their reserves into it, trying to hold that line for as long as possible and to maximize the enemy's losses in doing so.

 - Extended

 Couriers were sent north, following the clear path out that took a fair bit longer, racing towards their reinforcements. Messages were exchanged in the night, and three more couriers sent out. One ordered the backlines to start setting up a new defensive line at where they had first slammed into the UST's defenses, digging trenches, spider holes, trapped pits of barbed wire, bear traps and pikes covered in everything ranging from poison, urine and decaying oozes from dead animals, as well as the intestines of some prey animals the Kithium were using for food. Field guns were put into prepared dugouts, artillery pits and areas were targetted for mortar and artillery strikes, areas picked along likely points of advance, especially along the roads for ambushes, and to establish killzones for gattling guns and field guns that'd be used in direct-fire roles. 

 They picked areas along the road that'd be demolished once their own forces were back across the line, so that they could hinder the movement of their opposition as much as possible, and wear them down as much as possible. 
And as well, someone somewhere had grown a bit more.. creative. They would link up a trip-wire, to a grenade. It'd be hidden by leaves and scrubs, but assuming it worked, it would yank hard on a flint-mechanism she'd rigged up to the fuse, and cause it to ignite. If it did work, it'd be a nasty surprise for the UST. She did this more as her unit worked along the roads, and a couple others too, setting up a fair few dozen of these. As well, some prepared positions were being built to hold back the advance of the enemy and to protect their own troops once the retreat to their new line was underway. 

 One courier went back south, to tell the reinforcements this had become a extraction operation, and then the south that once they could, they needed to retreat.