Intuitions of War
Chapter 9: The strike
*Midnight of the same day the king announced*
"Hahhh…." Harper was still walking to Great Britain, though it was night, so he was currently searching for a place to stay at. However, no matter where he looked, there was only the little hill that he was standing on, and a lot of farming grounds all around him.
"Well, sleeping in between the crops will provide some cover, so it's better than nothing." Harper said to himself, and began to walk towards one of the farming grounds, or more specifically, the one with the tallest cover.
'The higher and thicker the cover, the less likely I am to be seen.' Harper's reasoning was sound, or at least he thought so, as he went into the cover of all the crops. He laid down on the dirt, and looked up at the sky.
It was a cloudy night, yet there were still some openings within the clouds through which he could see the stars.
'So nice… I used to do this every day back in Newgate.' Being the lazy person that he was, he would just stare up at the sky a lot in Newgate, not caring about the world. It was beautiful and shiny a lot of the times, but there were still clouds every now and then within the starry sky.
'That's right… I'm following my beliefs by trying to help Britain. The only reason I'm doing anything is so I could just be like this, every day, all day.' He thought to himself, and then sighed.
It was true. The only reason he was doing any of this was because he just wanted to live a life where he could do what he wanted, when he wanted. He wanted to just live, that was all. Yet, the world wouldn't let him, or more specifically, the war wouldn't.
'I'm either going to die trying, or make it to the end and live the rest of my life the way I want!' He was dedicated to his goal, and with that thought of encouragement within his mind, he went to sleep with a big, yet delicate, smile on his face.
--- sequence 2 ---
*Translated to English*
"How much longer 'till we get there?" One of the soldiers sitting within the boat said, and the captain sighed.
"Not much longer. At most, it will take another hour or two to reach Landon." The captain said, while continuing to drive with the rest of the boats within the fleet. They were currently heading to Landon, intent on raiding and taking over it.
"Do you think the Scottish took our offer?" The captain asked, trying to hear the thoughts of the soldiers behind him.
"Probably, for the few years that I lived in Scotland during the war, they were intent on just surviving. They'd do anything just so they could survive." One of the soldiers replied, while putting his head down.
"Well, prepare for the battle, the British aren't going to give up easily. They're one of the main powers of the war, just like us, and there is also another thing that I've been holding back from you guys, though there is probably no reason to not tell you now." The captain of the boat said, and all the soldiers on the boat looked at his back.
"What is it?"
"We received some intel the other day that one of our soldiers had turned traitor, though that isn't the big part. The big part is that the soldier went and joined the British army, and he supposedly told the British all of our plans." The captain said, and all the soldiers pailed.
One, however, tried to break the mold.
"Hey, it's just a rumor right? It's nothing guys, don't worry about it."
"Yes, it is just a rumor. However, if that rumor turns out to be true…" The captain began, while taking in a deep breath in the middle.
"This could possibly be the biggest turning point in the war for the British."
--- sequence 3 ---
"How are preparations going? The Germans are going to be here soon." One of the generals of the British army asked a man.
"We're almost finished, we only have to bring in the ammunition that a factory village developed, and we'll be ready for this battle." The man replied, while checking off something on his list. The general just nodded, and the man went running off.
"You don't seem fine, Caecca. You that nervous about the invasion?" A voice piped up from behind the general, which half spooked him to death. He immediately whirled around, and identified the source of the voice.
"Oh, it's just you Lucy." Caecca muttered, and then turned around again.
"What do you mean it's just me? You're so mean you know, treating me like this!" She used a sarcastic mocking voice, which only served to piss off Caecca even more.
"Can't you take anything seriously? The Germans are basically here, and this could be our chance to turn the war around! A battle that will decide whether or not Britain gets to go on is going to happen right where we are standing!" The general said, while sighing and looking back out at the English Channel.
"I am taking it seriously, aren't I the one who recommended this idea?!" Lucy said, and began puffing up her cheeks. If you took a closer look at her, she wasn't as cute as she acted. She had greying hair, and wrinkles were beginning to form on her face. She was coming close to the end of her days, and Caecca really did worry about her.
'I enlisted in the army as a normal soldier, and fought my way up here. Then, the day I walked into my office, she was already there, and I've known her since…' Their meeting was quite the mysterious one. He didn't know her background, her life, or anything. All he knew was that the queen of England seemed to know the woman, and she had some strong connections.
"Well, you're a veteran of the battlefield, so your idea should be somewhat good." Caecca said, while continuing to stare out at the English Channel. This was supposedly where the Germans were coming from, and since they knew that, they were setting up a raid here.
"They're expecting the fight to be in London, but we knew all about their invasion, so we set it up here so we can intersect them and take them by surprise, am I right?" Caecca asked, trying to make sure.
"Well, supposedly that's what's going to happen. However, we do have an issue. There is a chance of them coming in from the North Sea, and we posted the very minimum amount of soldiers there so we could prepare for the battle that is going to happen here. If the soldiers at the North Sea can't deal with the Germans, they'll have infiltrated the United Kingdom." Even Lucy seemed somewhat worried, not knowing what to do.
While the plan was pretty decent, in reality, all it took was a couple of German soldiers at the Northern Sea to break through.
'If they infiltrate the UK, there's no telling what they'll be able to bring in. Tanks, guns, set up outposts… at that point, we'll have essentially lost the war. However, the Italians should be doing something to help us.' Caecca thought to himself, and simply laughed out loud.
"What's so funny?" Lucy asked Caecca, confused at the sudden outburst.
"When my grandpa was still alive, he told me to laugh off anything that I couldn't do anything about. If I couldn't do something about something and I was worrying about it, then what was the point of worrying?" Caecca replied, trying to explain himself to Lucy.
"Considering I've never heard you laugh like that before, that must mean that this situation is one of the most desperate you have ever been in?" Lucy asked, trying to understand the thoughts of Caecca.
"Yeah, you're right. This situation could either be the turning point where we take down a lot of the German forces, or the point where Britain is eliminated from the war." Caecca said, and sat down on the dirt.
"Concerning the traitor, what's happening with him right now?" Caecca wanted to know about the German traitor that had joined the British army. He was the one who told them all this intel, though he was still thrown in prison since they didn't know if he was lying or not. However, that was a few weeks ago, and he didn't know what was happening to him now.
"He's been moved to five different cells in five different locations during the time he's been here, so that nobody could ever track down where he is. Right now, he should be moving to his sixth cell in a different location." Lucy replied, understanding the concern of Caecca. If that German traitor were to get out, there was no knowing what would happen.
"Sir, they're here!" One of the soldiers on top of the hill behind Lucy and Caecca yelled something out to them, and both of them whirled around. The soldier gestured to the English Channel and to the right, and both of them looked.
There was a sight that they were both expecting, though not in a good way. The germans were here, and were about to pull up on the English Channel.
"Crap, let's move." Lucy said quietly, and dashed up the hill and jumped into the trees, while Caecca followed right after her. Both of them were trying to get past the forest, and out onto a taller hill.
'The high ground we will have will be one of the main advantages we have in this battle, we have to utilize it correctly.' Caecca thought to himself, while looking around. Every tree that they passed had at least one soldier hidden somewhere near them, ready to jump out and shoot down the Germans.
They finally got through the little miniature forest, and began climbing the hill at the end. Once they reached the top, they saw the rest of their soldiers. There were at least a thousand soldiers hidden behind this hill, which had such good cover at the front that they could cover them all.
"Everyone, the Germans are here. Get to your positions on the hill, and prepare to fire at them." The general said in a quiet voice, while sweat began to form on his head.
'In reality, the chances of us winning this battle are very slim, but this is only a miniature battle. In reality, the real battle lies after this. If the Germans do manage to defeat us and get through us, we've organized an army back at the entrance of London that has thousands of people within it.'
Caecca knew the truth, that this was definitely not all of Lucy's plans. He had walked in on her writing a paper in his office one day, when she immediately yelled at him to get out. He worked with her for a bit, and got out of the office. He came back a few hours later, and she was gone, but the paper was still there.
On that paper were the plans to this battle, and how it was going to turn out. This battle here was just to weaken the German forces, not eliminate them.
That was when she walked back in, and saw that he was reading her paper. At that point, she just told him the whole plan since there was no concealing it anymore. However, she forced him not to tell anyone the plan, which was pretty annoying.
'All of these bright soldiers here, fighting for our nation…' Caecca began, but immediately cut out the thought.
'No, they're dying for their nation! Whether or not this is a distraction or not, it doesn't matter! They're contributing and helping, and that's what matters!' he thought to himself while he watched all the soldiers get down on the ground and put their guns on the hill, ready to shoot.
He took a deep breath, and looked out at the English Channel. The germans had already put their boats there, and were almost within the forest. The general knew what he had to do.
'If we're just meant to weaken the enemy, then we're going to weaken them good!'
"FIRE!"
Not even a second after he said that, a volley of bullets shot out and hit many of the German soldiers. All of the soldiers hidden within the forest jumped out and began stabbing and shooting the Germans.
"Let the battle begin!"