Codegease: Air and Land Warfare 1946

Page 135

"That's right, but the intelligence we've received only tells us that the fleet is coming to the Baltic Sea, but they can't say exactly what it's for. So, General, what do you think?"

"We've always thought the Berlin crisis was the British's fault, that they were hiding something. But... this time they've gone against the grain. Could they be up to something again? This fleet, while large in number, doesn't have a single capital ship. If they're here for our retreating land forces, their range is limited, and their firepower isn't up to par. The British know that while the Baltic Fleet suffered heavy losses in the Great Patriotic War, it's still a force to be reckoned with. We at least have one battleship, it's just too old."

"Or are they worried about engaging us in battle, which would result in the loss of their own capital ships? That doesn't seem plausible. Every British capital ship in front of us is a card we can't back down from. Are they afraid of the Soviet Air Force? No, since they didn't bring an aircraft carrier, either they were considering the weather and their air force couldn't be deployed, or they simply didn't want air superiority. And they're unlikely to make that mistake."

"So what should we do, comrade?"

"All we can do is remind the generals on the Red October to keep a close eye on the western sea... I almost mispronounced it as Gangut again, his old name."

Section 211, Chapter 148: How to Discover and Understand the Enemy

The silence of winter can be unsettling, but it also brings tranquility to the battlefield. The soldiers of Britannia no longer need to worry excessively about aircraft overhead, which is a good thing.

The front line of the battlefield that retreated northward was quite a distance from here, enough for someone to safely come and walk around with a gun.

However, these people approaching were a bit unusual: looking at their clothes and then at these young women, wait a minute? Why wasn't Griffin driving his KMF and instead leading his squad on foot to the battlefield? And who were those people behind them, around the same age as them?

"Okay, Mr. Bruno? This is a Soviet position that they abandoned. Take a look at those artillery pieces that they didn't have time to take with them."

“Okay, we understand.” Bruno led the way, jumping into the empty bunker and examining the cannon whose wheels were wrecked but whose carriage was still intact—it seemed to be a Soviet A-19 howitzer? They didn’t know why it was damaged and they hadn’t taken it with them.

"Tch, how boring..." The captain tossed his assault rifle aside and sprawled out on the ground. "Lilizia's back in Area 11, it's so annoying to lose a pretty girl like that."

"Captain?" Angelie kicked him. "Soldiers on the battlefield must follow reasonable orders from their superiors. What, you don't like life outside the cockpit that much?!"

"Yeah! I'm going to die without Vincent to drive! So what if I'm annoyed?!"

With a whoosh, Griffin felt something flash across the bridge of his nose, cutting off a few strands of his hair and startling him into a cold sweat.

“Our mission,” Angelina said casually as she walked past him, picking up the dagger he had thrown, “is to ensure the safety of these VIPs during their battlefield reconnaissance, to ensure that no Soviet soldiers escape and attack them, and there’s another metric that’s quite important to you, isn’t it?”

"I understand, sigh... because my ability has a limited detection range, it still needs to be nurtured and developed... Is this a superpower or is it like planting rice seedlings? I'm such a guinea pig."

“What else? This is Lieutenant General Wood’s order.” With that, Angelina kicked Griffin in the back of the head again, shoving him up from the ground.

"Okay, okay... so I just want to know, do we really have to wear this thing?"

As the captain spoke, he tried to take off the bulletproof vest hanging on his chest—it was all black, just like the outfits of the other infantrymen next to him, and it didn't match their bright knightly uniforms at all, plus it was quite uncomfortable.

"Are you tired of the weight, the heat, or your own life?" Angelie was also wearing the same bulletproof vest, but she only carried two handguns and a pair of binoculars around her neck for easy observation.

"Hey, it seems I really can't complain to you about the heat, huh?" The captain suddenly grinned mischievously as he walked towards her. "You girls always wear more layers than us guys, like things that need to be tied around your back, and... speaking of which, I think I just noticed that your safety shorts are also blue today..."

"Hey, hey, hey!" In the blink of an eye, Angelie pulled out a pistol and pressed it against the captain's cheek. "I, I haven't finished yet! Don't get me wrong! Actually... I think... I feel like we're nothing special."

Yes, indeed, the two of them couldn't help but laugh when they saw Ypel behind them.

"Huh? Is it that funny?" The girl with long black hair scratched her head, looking at her outfit—a pistol strapped to her leg, a bulletproof vest hanging on her chest, and two Soviet DP machine guns crisscrossed on her back. What's even more outrageous is that she's currently holding a huge anti-tank rifle in her arms. Yes, she just picked it up from somewhere, and it even has bullets!

"Hahaha! Is this all you get after I asked you to prepare some heavy weapons?! Hahahaha! If that heavy machine gun hadn't run out of ammo, would you have brought it up with you too?! Put it down, okay?!"

The two laughed so hard they were doubled over, completely oblivious to the engineers working on their tasks nearby.

"Hey! Lieutenant Vorian, have your superior find Shen'er first." Bruno gently patted Angelie's shoulder and pointed to a tank-like object in the distance. "We've seen this cannon before. Can you escort us to that thing?"

……

When they got there, they discovered that it wasn't a tank, but a self-propelled artillery piece without a turret.

“Hmm…” Bruno looked around. “Why does it look so much like the Bison’s hull? Five wheels, two cylindrical auxiliary fuel tanks, but this cannon… it seems much longer and thicker than the Bison’s.”

“Well, we asked the Soviet prisoners of war, and they did have something like this,” Angelie recalled. “They called it the SU-85, but the gun is obviously a different type. Oh, and I wonder when they’ll finally give us the designations for these self-propelled guns.”

"Looks like we got lucky?" Ypel threw down his things, climbed onto the top of the tank, and found a bullet hole. "It seems that an aerial KMF attacked the roof of the vehicle from the air and then burned it."

"Hey! Wait a minute! Come down here right now!" Angelie suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Griffin. "Captain, it's your time."

"Me?" He paused for a moment before realizing what she meant. "Oh, I know."

As he spoke, Griffin placed one hand on the tank, took a deep breath, and stared intently, as if he were practicing qigong.

“Ah, I saw it.” He recounted to the crowd all the supernatural things he had seen with his eye. “There were four people inside the chariot. I could see that they were basically just brainwaves. I couldn’t see what position they were lying in.”

Is there anything placed inside?

“I can’t see that, Mr. Bruno. My ability only allows me to see living things… Hey! There’s a living one! Sitting in the middle of the rear of the cabin! His arm is moving! As if he’s looking for something!”

"Is she planning to fight to the death?" Angelie cautiously drew her gun and climbed onto the top of the tank to take a look.

"There are two hatches here. I'll look at the one on the left. You, Ypel, handle the one on the right. When I count to three, open your hatch first. Do you understand what I'm going to do?"

"Ok!"

"Okay, one, two, three!"

The moment Ypel opened the hatch and rolled off the vehicle, several gunshots rang out as people jumped out and flew into the sky. Angelie immediately opened the hatch on her side and darted inside. The instant her tactical flashlight hit the soldier, she pulled the trigger.

"Clear them out! Carry all these people out!"

Ypel took the corpses and threw them out. All four soldiers were roasted to a crisp. One of them even had his thigh completely charred, leaving only bones. The exposed internal organs of the others unexpectedly smelled of roasting.

"Oh my god..." Several engineers were a little uncomfortable. "It seems we haven't been here long enough. Our ability to withstand this stuff is even worse than that of the girls..."

“If it were a regular female soldier instead of one of our Knights, she probably wouldn’t be able to handle it even after the hatch opened…” Angelie shook her head helplessly at Bruno and the others. “The new army groups that have just arrived in District 45 haven’t really dealt with the soldiers’ psychological issues yet. I’m not bragging, but we’ve experienced this firsthand from fighting for twenty hours straight…”

"So, is it our turn now?"

Bruno crawled into the front hatch of the tank—it seemed to be the driver's entrance.

"Huh? Look what I found!" He carefully pried open a piece of human flesh and discovered a small booklet that hadn't completely burned. "Is this the operating manual for this tank?"

“Hmm, does this Russian lettering translate to SU-100?” Angelie leaned over to help identify it.

"Alright, Lieutenant, it seems you've gotten us something even more valuable." Bruno came out, looked up and touched the SU-100's gun barrel, looking quite satisfied. "Help us contact the rear and tell them there's a big package here that we want to tow back."

"Okay, I'll be right there..."

Suddenly, a loud bang startled everyone present. Angelie felt a spark flash on the edge of the SU-100's roof, and then something grabbed her braid and knocked her down.

"What's that? Huh?" a soldier exclaimed. "Is this what they called a sniper? Are they targeting us?"

"Calm down, everyone." The lieutenant considered the situation. "Mr. Bruno, calling for backup might not be fast enough. For safety's sake, you should take cover in the tank compartments or underground. We'll handle this."

“Okay, let me see…” She touched the bullet holes left on the vehicle while cautiously peeking out to scan the direction from which the bullets might have come. “Over there! It should be that farmhouse! Everyone listen up! You guys hold that area down with your guns, Captain, Ypel, we’re going over there!”

……

"Hmm, this son of a gun isn't very good, but he's quite good at hiding..."

Griffin was the first to sneak up to the farmhouse, and the snipers didn't fire a single shot during this time, except when they first took their first steps.

“Stop dawdling, Captain,” Angelina reminded him. “Get the house sorted out quickly.”

“Okay.” Griffin pressed his hand against the exterior wall again. “There’s someone on the second floor. It looks like they’re hiding in a small place, like a wardrobe or something. You should be fine just barging in.”

“No, this isn’t right,” Angelie shook her head. “He couldn’t possibly only have a few bullets. Why is he crouching like this? He should be somewhere in a firing position…”

What are your thoughts?

"I wanted to sneak in through the second-floor window, but... the window is closed..."

"I'll do it! Drink up!" Suddenly, Ypel stood up, clutching the anti-tank rifle in her hands like a lumberjack wielding an axe, and charged towards the house. Then, the girl swung her arms forward with a mighty swing, sending the anti-tank rifle flying up to the second-floor window and smashing it to pieces, glass and wooden frame.

“I…I freaking…” Griffin stared dumbfounded at the anti-tank rifle that was falling with the glass and wooden planks. “Couldn’t you have fired a few shots?”

"Well! No time to waste!" Ypel suddenly rushed forward, leaning against the person in front, his hands clasped together, slightly bent over. "Lieutenant! Quick! He's probably discovered our plan!"

"Oh well!"

Immediately afterwards, Angelie ran a few steps toward Ypel and then took a big leap, stepping on the latter's hands before being thrown upwards and landing steadily on the windowsill.

"Watch out, Angelie! Look at the injury on your leg!"

"Ha, do you really think I'm some kind of princess?" With that, the girl rolled over and tumbled into the house.

"He's around the corner!" the lieutenant exclaimed, following Griffin's expert instructions. "That guy looks terrified, cowering there with his head in his hands, not at all like he's going to fight back. But how did he have the guts to attack us before?"

“I understand, no need to remind me.” Angelie crouched down against the wall, revealing half of her body, and pointed her pistol at a suspicious closet in front of her.

"People inside! Lay down your weapons and surrender!" she said in somewhat broken Russian. "I can guarantee your safety!"

"He's still not moving! He hasn't even changed his position!" Griffin continued to describe the situation over the radio, which gave her a strange premonition.

She stood up, slowly walked towards the closet, and opened the door.

"Huh?" She looked at the person in the closet with a puzzled expression—not only did he not look like a young and energetic soldier at all, but he also had white hair and wrinkles, and the clothes he was wearing were just ordinary wool sweaters, with no trace of military uniform.

"A commoner?" She pulled the old man to the ground and searched him thoroughly, but found nothing suspicious. Then, turning her head, she noticed a rope tied to an open window.

"Cough..." Helpless, he could only report the news of the target's escape to the captain—he had originally planned to capture him alive.

……

"Hey! Captain! What are we doing now!"

"Upstairs! Lieutenant Angelie has arrested a civilian! Take him back!"

Griffin watched as the two soldiers who followed him in rushed into the house, but he had a bad feeling about it.

"what!--"

A violent explosion suddenly erupted inside the house, and Griffin and Ipel watched helplessly as a blood-stained helmet flew out from outside the door.

"what happened?"

"Captain... Captain!" On the stairs leading upstairs, a soldier collapsed in panic, watching helplessly as his comrade was blown to a crisp, right below a cabinet that had been opened—or rather, blown open.

"Just now, he wanted to open the cabinet to see if there was anything to eat, and then... he..."

"This...a time bomb? Could it be such a coincidence?" Griffin licked his lips. "That terrifying?"

At that moment, Angelina was also standing at the top of the stairs, staring in astonishment at the situation inside the room. As she looked down, she suddenly noticed something.

“You stay there, soldier!” She crouched down and touched a thin, faintly shimmering thread on the last step of the stairs.

"Oh my god..." As she carefully cut the wire with her dagger, she also noticed something resembling a hand grenade at both ends of the thin wire.

"This is probably a trap set by the Soviets. Oh!" Suddenly, something flashed through her mind. "I'm sorry, Captain, I seem to have neglected my duty..."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

“That day I gathered information that frontline troops, when attacking enemy-occupied territory, often placed these kinds of explosives in various things in houses, such as wine bottles and cabinet doors. If you opened a bottle or a door, it would explode…”

"W-what? So your bad feeling earlier, and the reason that soldier ran away, were all because of them..."

"Many troops advancing on the front lines are now afraid to search houses, and the panic among many soldiers remains high—that's the result of their actions... I'm sorry, Captain, I was taken to the medical station because of the air raid that day, and I didn't have time to tell you..."

"Oh my god... that was too close..." Griffin trembled as he loosened his bulletproof vest, collapsed to the ground, and could no longer stand up.

Chapter 149, Section 212: What the hell is this execution ground?

It was afternoon again in the Tokyo Concession, and a fairly large construction site was bustling with activity once more.

Unlike the ordinary army of laborers composed of people from Area 11, the foremen who used to wear white hard hats, shirts and ties, and carry short sticks for beating people were gone. In their place were Britannian soldiers wearing white hard hats and civilian clothes, and the "Area 11 beasts" who were being guarded were now called "Area 45 beasts".

They were divided into two sides. On one side, most of the people were young and strong men, all wearing uniforms with a red "S" on them, representing the Soviet Union. They were Soviet prisoners of war who had been forced to work here. On the other side, from young men to elderly people with wrinkles, and even some women who had weathered many storms, the letters on their uniforms were replaced with black "G"s, representing Germany. They were the more miserable German civilians.

The soldiers guarding them also had their own weapons. Those closer to the laborers still held sticks in their hands, acting as supervisors, while armed guards stood on high ground and around the perimeter of the construction site, minimizing the possibility of this group of unstable elements erupting.

The wheelbarrow was pushed by hand, and the building materials slid up, down, left, and right in the claws of the cranes and tower cranes, making the whole construction site appear peaceful.

……

"Damn fascists..."

Sergeant Androv was still in his spot carrying cement bags. He walked up one floor, and with a casual tilt of his head and a glance down, he could see where the Germans worked, and those men who might have once been part of the Wehrmacht. As for how to distinguish soldiers mixed among civilians? That was the experience of a veteran honed over years of battlefield combat, something that couldn't be summarized in a few words.

"Hey, comrade?" another person leaned in. "What did you find?"

“The fascists are running low on manpower, missing several distinctive individuals.” Da Shi said sternly, “Have you seen where they went?”

"Never heard of it..."

"Hey! You two over there! Don't stop!" the guard yelled, interrupting their conversation.

They had no choice but to continue on their work route.

"Please explain in detail, Your Excellency."

"I remember there were some Germans in there a few days ago, they really caught my attention, they seemed like officers, maybe even SS officers. But they're all gone today."