Scathing of South [UST - Kithium League]

[Greywall]

North

The UST forces continued to push against the Kithium, their tactics of attempting to use traps and ambush via spider holes against a large force were quickly countered. The moment a Kithium maybe got a shot out they were immediately met with death. The delays now angered the UST forces and they ordered advancement without halting, artillery barrages pulverized Kithium positions as infantry advanced using Kumo rifles spared from the Ferville front to out gun their Kithium rivals.

Veneshy

The exchange of artillery fire continued; observers began to report fire coming from different positions meaning the Kithium were attempting to move their guns around to avoid being hit. The city defenders just needed to hold out, taking cover where possible as Kithium rounds hit the buildings destroying some of them and killing civilians and soldiers. 
The 6th army had been left undeterred for the majority of the fighting; their artillery guns continued to fire with impunity at the Kithium forces from their position. 

South

The Eastern flank committed a lot of damage to the Kithium until cavalry strikes in their rear guard forced them to halt the assault. The Eastern forces would have to compress and fall in as the reinforcements were armed with better firearms and caused significant losses. The Eastern strike force for now was immobile to hold off the wave of fresh Kithium troops.

The Central group refused to allow the Kithium to become comfortable as new artillery strikes were followed by infantry assaults to take their position. Again like in the North, attempts to ambush or use traps were ineffective with such a large force to use brute strength against them. 

The Western flank drove hard against the Kithium response, this was their home, the Kithium be damned. Thunder of artillery fire was followed by the yells of men advancing and refusing to allow the invaders repose. Their large force would slowly overrun any Kithium that chose to fight and die here and now. 

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 742, 45 field guns, 342 carabineers.
Kithium: 1834, 452 carabineers, 98 field guns

[VoxApocrypha]

North and Veneshy

The fighting would drag on with significant losses to the Kithium, of which would be enough reason for the courier messages to turn to a state of relative urgency. Exchanging them between command and the front would eventually see the Kithium ordered into a retreat. They didn't abandon their positions quickly, instead moving back line by line using the cover of night until they were quickly moving back, and along the ways they actively used whatever was available to break up the road behind them, using either felled trees, bombs to blast out the road, and as well detonating some of their ammunition stores as they quickly retreated back towards their point of contact during the first hours of the invasion.

 The forces in Veneshy were similarly starting to fall back, but waited for their northern units to link up with them before they began to quickly retreat.

They would move back quickly, and retreat as fast as they were reasonably able, while leaving some troops behind to perform holding actions.
5,000 Light Infantry soldiers left behind, and if they could they would retreat more slowly, but they would be ordered to fight to the death if no better option presented itself.

South

The Kithium didn't let up, brutalizing the Easterners as horifically as they possibly can, and not letting up. They were ruthless, harsh, and focused, and when they found a weakspot they slammed themselves so hard into it it was almost physically hitting with a shockwave. If they broke through, they began to pull their troops out, helping to fill in spaces, while some pockets of the UST troops would be isolated and destroyed, leading to the Kithium troops in the southern front to begin filtering out and retreating along the road, following a network of couriers of whom before too long, once their forces were trhough or mostly through, would destroy or change around roadsigns to confuse any pursuit, hopefully anyway.

 Still almost 10,000 Light Infantry were left to perform the holding action. And if they could, they'd retreat. 
If not, they would stand hteir ground and die on it, or simply attempt to retreat into the countryside and make their way back to the League. 

[Greywall]

North

The Kithium withdrawal allowed the Northern reinforcements to push onto Veneshy, emboldened by the victory many of them began buying into the propaganda fed to them by officers how the UST always defeats the League.

Veneshy

Kithium forces pulling out were met with artillery fire but otherwise the 6th Army linked up with the city at last, Veneshy had taken considerable damage from Kithium guns and the UST failed to evacuate civilians creating a situation in which hundreds of noncombatants were slayed. UST command took this moment to collect their forces and determine their next course of action, the Kithium likely fell back to regroup for another assault. 

South

The Eastern flanking force was fighting for survival. The Kithium came down hard on them bringing a brutal firefight that saw UST losses pile up, after hours of fighting the Kithium began filtering out but the Eastern forces were far too banged up to do much of anything. The Southern detachment opted to link up at Veneshy than pursue their opponents. The Eastern force was heavily gutted and needed to send their wounded South for medical treatment. 

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 2831
Kithium: 1993

[VoxApocrypha]

North

The Kithium regrouped but only continued south, racing to the POC and then coming to a halt, while they waited for their southern forces to link up with them. Once they did, they would begin to retreat, leaving behind their prepared fortifications but demolishing most of them at least, and taking their equipment too as they withdrew - as well, they left a hell of a lot of traps behind as they did, not bothering to uncover them or mark them, simply letting them sit so they could be a nice little surprise for any dumb sod who stepped onto them.

---

They were soon on their way back, returning to their own side of the border so that they could offload their wounded, resupply, and as well, receive fresh soldiers and their fresh guns.
More of the bolt actions were given to their troops and short training sessions would follow, with a few half-strength units being merged and handed these new rifles to fill their ranks and to replace the rifles they had started the war with, clearly showing their age now. More maxim guns were being dispersed into the force, replacing old gattling guns, though some of their gattling guns would be loaded onto trucks and moved to the rear so that they could be refurbished and 'upgraded' with a new feed mechanism. Most that were replaced though, were simply taken as scrap, or put into storage in nearby warehouses and army bases, depots and so on.

The fighting had been comparatively brief unlike in other areas and had already mounted up to a absolutely abyssmal rate of losses.
This had in part been because of the Kumo rifles and the USTs already rather large army. The General had determined that in part, the losses were because of the fact she'd failed to recognize a rule that she'd been drilled in repeatedly, and failed to implement it as part of her strategy.

Concentration of Force.
That, pissed her off.
Still, the losses were skewed dramatically onto the UST's side, given how thoroughly they had trashed an entire region and basically made a main-road through the UST into a massive hazard-zone.
It was at least a better conclusion than she had expected. But it was not an acceptable outcome to be forced back across their own border, and her mistakes would have to be rectified or the Empress would relieve her of duty and discharge her.

She began to send messages to the government itself, and as couriers and some telegraph messages were exchanged and sent back and forth, she asked for them to make a big purchase on her behalf.
They needed new artillery, more machine guns, and more bolt actions. The government would begin the process of making arrangements for those purchases, while they as well worked to resupply and rearm the returning army. They considered if the UST would launch an offensive against the League, but it wasn't deemed a major risk. Still, she'd have her cavalry patrol the border.

However, Cavalry had not been as effective as they hoped.
And with only 40,000 dragoons being left, the rest of the Cavalry forces were dissolved, and reduced to light infantry forces and standard infantry, to be integrated into other units and trained.
They would opt to then fill many of these new gaps with simply the excess gattling guns, of which they'd train them to use in express-sessions of mass training done in open fields rented from farmers or just found and used by the army in this relatively sparsely populated region.

The Kithium would overall consolidate their strength into a single major army, of which would act as one force and be kept together.
For now, their role had shifted to defense.

[VoxApocrypha]

Fluff Post -

"What do we do with the horses?" Asked one of the logisticians. "We've stripped a huge force of soldiers of their beasts, a lot of them protested." 

"Let them have rights to the horses and give them private ownership of the horses should they be willing to accept responsibility. For a majority of the horses we're going to retrain them and pair them into the wagons, so they can pull war material and supplies where we need it, and as well it'll strengthen our backline logistics." 

"That's a bit of a tall order-" - He'd be cut off, the General sighing. "If we can't do that, then sell the horses. Or let these new infantrymen keep them as beasts of burden that they can lead around. I'm sure a lot of private citizens and houses, clans and what-have-you in the League are going to want trained horses they can use for labor and travel." After a moment, the Logistican nodded. 

The General continued. 
"If we can't do any of that, find another solution. Hell, let the government sell them to a foreign country... or just put the damn things down if that's what has to be done. A lot of the horses aren't combat-worthy anymore as it is anyway, with how many of them were injured in battle or on the path into and out of the UST. Find some solution, whatever seems the best. Or all of them if that's what's needed." She says, sitting in her chair and leaning back against the wooden frame. 
The Logistician turned to leave, as another would stand up. 

 "..Weapons training might need to be more extensive." She'd say. "We're getting a lot of misfires, cases of bad-handling and generally, unfamiliarity with the bolt-actions. Machine guns are somewhat simpler to train on but we've got plenty of incidents to do with that, including one friendly-fire, and a couple incidents in the past week of troopers accidentally flagging-the-range." 

"Take our experienced troops, or at least some of them, and have them start giving lessons on the handling of the weapons. We're out of the fire, they can afford to handle training their comrades." She'd say. "Cross-train soldiers as time and availability permits, because hopefully we're going to be getting more of those rifles, and a lot more after, for our troops to use. We're not going back there with the same force we entered with. When we go back, we're going to be win and make this as one-sided a war as possible." She'd tell them. 

 "I'll.. do what I can to get that setup. It may be some time before-" The general waves. "Just do it, get moving. I don't care, we have at least another three months if things go well." She'd say, the other Logistician then leaving with a nod and bow, heading out of the tent. 

"..Next." The General says, lighting up a black cigarette and taking a drag, blue smoke escaping through her nostrils as another stood up.

[Greywall]

The UST were given the order, counter invade the Kithium League and demand concessions. The hulking force of 490,000 troops, 1,550 field guns, 5,000 carabiners and 4,500 dragons leaving the rest to guard veneshy.

The force would be broken into two large spearheads that pursued the kithium invaders entryway into the UST. The orders were simply destroy the enemy when found and pillage the kithium nation until they surrendered.

[VoxApocrypha]

When the UST forces would make their way to the border, they'd be spotted relatively quickly be Kithium border patrol units of which were linked back to the army itself, and mostly made up of cavalry and couriers. They didn't engage, instead opting to race for home - they'd tell their comrades that the UST had come across the border. There were many groups of riders, and eventually they made it to the encampment proper after four or so hours of racing, of which would be when they informed the general of the situation. The Kithium Army of which would be the closest was at a slightly diminished strength of around 343,000+ troops, having lost overall around 6800+ soldiers of various types to wounds and outright deathblows.

This number was a lot to have to move, but when the order was given, they were keen.
They wouldn't engage the UST, they were simply outmatched. The order was given to retreat to the city of Ishu'Kaalak'shi, of which sat at the end of a major railway. That'd be the area of which would be best to make a stand, and it'd allow as well for them to send messages to the capital, and to call for reinforcements. Still, the general sent every courier she had save only a scant handful to start first evacuating towns, and to secondly start rallying troops and support from any military installation they could reach. She hoped that with what was basically a shot-gunning of couriers out to reach the bases and anywhere with a garrison, they'd be meeting up with plenty of reinforcements.

Ishu'Kaalak'shi was effectively the only major city on this side of the country, as most of this region was effectively just barren ground and tundra. They'd even planned to leave soon anyway because the biting cold would be coming fast and hard once summer was nearing its end, and they were already getting close to zero-hour on that note. The seasons were not kind in this area after all. Still, it'd be hours at best before they could all retreat in full, and she sent what units were already ready ahead - focusing primarily on getting the ones with the new and irreplaceable Gaelian rifles out first while the rest would follow behind. With the abundance of wagons she now had anyway and trucks they'd only have to load the ammo, fuel, and food. Everything else could stay, including the tents. It was warm enough they would survive and cloth was cheap, and tarps were plenty easy to pack.

She had however, some of the remaining dragoons start to rearrange road signs, and others would as well be sent in platoons to start evacuating any village they knew of on the maps. Then they'd be basically ordered to go to Ishu'Kaalak'shi. The returning 38,000 Dragoons would be given a rather bad but necessary task. Trail, harrass, and report on the positions and strength of the UST's forces, and try to lead them away from major settlements, or at the least try to trick them into following them in the wrong direction.

[Greywall]

The invasion of the Kithium league wasn't as large as the one committed in the 20's. In fact the force that broke the league numbered in the millions, the UST forces had begun their march to Ishu'Kaalak'shi. Companies would engage the Dragoons who after withdrawing would be pursued after with task teams, the larger UST force continued its march Eastward.

UST infantry in hastily made uniforms crossed the barren fields in large columns while mule pulled wagons kept a steady flow of what supplies could be shipped from Veneshy.

[VoxApocrypha]

The Dragoons used their superior mobility to outmaneuver the pursuing forces repeatedly, with a lot of their number as well actively picking on the UST's own cavalry with brutal focus. They did not give them any quarter, and often they would actively kill the horses over the riders half the time. They did not give their enemy much time, and made them have to chase them down to try to keep them from harrassing them. It was still not enough because there was drastically more of their own cavalry compared to the UST's own. They would attack the flanks, strike outliers, and before long some of their number was making for the rear areas to attack their supply lines.

The Kithium continued until they reached the city of Ishu'Kaalak'shi, where they'd immediately perform two actions.
They would begin to dig trenches with the majority of their soldiers, set up artillery, gattling guns, machine guns and and as well placing sandbags and wooden logs into position for cover and protection. They'd start to lay out massive amounts of barbed wire out, placing beartraps and tangle-foot barbed wire, and as well they'd start to make large dirt embankments for cover and as well, to further reduce points of entry. The city was situated on a large hill so it had a decent advantage to its height, being effectively the only raised soil for miles in any direction.

Their second action, to send a call to the League via telegraph, which sparked a mass and immediate mobilization of the entire Kithium League's army. Their third, to start evacuating the town - by forcing all non-essential citizens out and onto the train following the southern line to the coast, while in the south, what mobilzied forces were already ready to move were loading trains with artillery, equipment, and then the men needed to man those guns, preparing to race north to Ishu'Kaalak'shi.

[Greywall]

UST companies and cavalry fighting the dragoons entered a frustrating situation, they would enter firefights that would result in no clear winner. UST commanders positioned themselves East of the city. They knew the Kithium would begin digging in and preparing for a prolonged fight. The UST forces would deploy almost 60,000 troops into a vanguard line to protect their supply lines and the initial plan for the attack came up. The plan would be to seize the city and threaten to raise it if the League refused to agree to peace talks.

The assault was simple, scouts would report ranges for the artillery corps and begin a large-scale shelling of Kithium defenses while UST forces formed a battleline to slowly advance and encircle the city. The stakes were high, winning the Eastern front and forcing the Kithium into capitulation would allow this force to drive North and finish off the Tafatu. The Union would remain preserved and establish itself as a major military power in Central Touli.

[Greywall]

Casualties:

UST: 213
Kithium: 298 Dragoons.

[VoxApocrypha]

The League's military focused on what it was told to, and that was to fortify, fortify, fortify. Secondarily however, large numbers of them were dedicated to performing a different task - evacuating the city. Wagon trains were sent to the south-east, following the general route plan of the railline but heading towards cities further south. Meanwhile, garrisons evacuated from around the border areas and civilians, as well as forces from the south were arriving in the city. Civilians were given food and blankets, given tarps and enough material for cloth teepees, but that was largely it, some didn't even get that and had to sleep in the wagons at best. What numbers of people they could load onto the second line that went south were packed in like sardeens and sent southbound. It wasn't too many people to do so, the city didn't even have 30,000 people in it, but it was still a monumental task for the only 15,000 soldiers dedicated to it, while the other 320,000+ were still digging out vast networks of trenches, spider-veins, translations and pits for artillery.

The city was practically surrounded by barbed wire, foxholes, trenches and by the end of the fifth day of fortification, and more fortifications still were being made as thousands more Kithium soldiers began to arrive in the city from all around, many of these units incidentally encountering the flanks of the USTs formation. Some would be destroyed in doing so, not large forces and they were not interested in being captured, opting instead to brutally give their lives to allow for some runners to get away and to relay what information they could, while they did whatever they could to savagely, horrifically maul their enemy with a renewed and even more brutal vigor. They'd played this game before. The League was built on the idea of burning the UST to the ground for its past transgressions. They were a determined foe.

The first trains had arrived carrying troops, cargo and guns.
Field artillery was brought in first, being the focus. Almost another 400 new fieldguns brought in with their crews and some supporting staff, while trucks from the south eventually arrived bringing more weapons, more manpower, coming in along the route into the city. Small battlegroups were as well marching north, but they'd not arrive for a fair bit, as they had to rely heavily on wagon trains, and what trucks they could commandeer or get the voluntary use of were still not enough to transport what was quickly becoming a million-man strong response. The city's defenders reached a growing strength of almost 380,000 soldiers, and increasing in a steady trickle, that was becoming a rushing river faster than it was a growing stream.

-

Meanwhile, the Kithium Dragoons would activley harass the defenses of the supply line to the city, uncaring for the losses they took. They were told to do as much damage as possible, to target and disrupt the enemy's supply and to harrass their flanks and sides, and with the entire countryside of their own nation to do it, it was made even easier for them to perform this still monumental task.

[Greywall]

The UST arrived, their hulking force began setting artillery into range and preparing infantry for direct assaults. Infantry would be spread into a c shaped deployment west of the city as artillery began shelling the first forward defenses set by the kithium.

UST commanders bellowed out speeches, “these animals are lesser than you! We’ve beaten them before and we shall do again. We will skin the men and children into trophies and take their women home as concubines!” The UST roared to life, the barbaric horde of blue awaited the long hammering of field guns trying to goad the kithium to surge forward.

The dragoons would meet the rear vanguard protecting supply lines and a long fire fight would ensue.