This Isn't What I Wanted
This Isn't What I Wanted
Daniel, at the rear of the formation, hadn't known that the Allied bomber squadron had arrived either.
Kwang! Kwaang─
Because the explosions, loud enough to shake the ground, had come from somewhere close by.
The moment he realized it was an enemy bombardment, urgent voices began coming through the radio one after another.
— It's an attack by an Allied bomber squadron! Bombs are being dropped from high altitude! Damn it!
— It's dangerous! A unit that appears to be an enemy armored division is infiltrating from both the left and right flanks simultaneously!
— Enemy armored vehicles and infantry support units, including over 30 tanks, spotted at a point 5km to the north!
— The south is the same! Armored units approaching from 4km away!
— Based on their advance speed, we have ten minutes until they collide with friendly forces!
The barrage of radio transmissions made his head ache.
'What? It really was a trap?'
Daniel had been the one who asked them to reconsider the advance, but he hadn't actually known the enemy would dig a trap and launch a surprise attack; he was just flustered.
This was only natural. If the Allied forces had attempted a large-scale surprise attack like this, aerial reconnaissance should have caught it.
If the Allies had emptied their stronghold and moved, it would have been impossible not to know, even if one wanted to remain blind.
Yet the reason that information hadn't been passed on to friendly forces boiled down to only one possibility.
'The Intelligence Bureau, those sons of bitches......!'
For some reason, the Intelligence Bureau had fed false information to the 7th Armored Division.
He couldn't understand it, but there was no time to dig into what that reason might be.
Kwaaaaaaang─
A bomb from a high-altitude bomber struck nearby, sending a massive plume of dirt and dust exploding into the air.
Daniel instinctively ducked, then hurriedly grabbed the radio.
Whatever the situation was turning into, he didn't want the friendly soldiers to die pointless deaths.
"Mortar units, respond immediately! Commence suppressive fire on the enemy's route of advance! Concentrate your bombardment on the anticipated movement paths of the armored vehicles! Buy time so all our forward forces can retreat!"
The mortar unit, upon hearing the order, quickly got into position.
They were able to deploy quickly because Daniel had already ordered them to set up mortars and stand by in advance.
Shortening the response time by even a single minute during an enemy surprise attack was an incredible advantage.
Because the longer the deployment took, the fewer attacks they could launch.
— Target distance 4km! Elevation 45 degrees, shell type high-explosive!
— Load!
— Ready to fire!
The fire order was given to the mortar unit, which had completed its preparations in an instant.
Kwang! Simultaneously with the command, the high-explosive shell soared into the sky and slammed hard into the enemy unit.
He could see with his own eyes the flames that shot up alongside the explosion.
Startled by the immediate response, the enemy armored unit's advance began to slow.
Having confirmed the impacts, the mortar unit intensified its fire.
As the reports of the mortar guns rang out in succession, Daniel continued sending out radio messages.
"Machine gun positions, prepare to intercept enemy infantry! Anti-tank weapons teams, take cover in the trenches and await orders! Do not act rashly until the enemy approaches effective range!"
Having issued one order after another, Daniel walked over to the temporary trench where the friendly soldiers were assembled.
He could have fled to a safer place and hidden, but Daniel didn't.
He knew that even if he hid and survived right now, the moment the unit was defeated, he would be a dead man.
From the Allied forces' perspective, he was their worst enemy; there was no reason to keep Daniel Steiner alive.
Knowing that if he were taken prisoner he would die after countless tortures, Daniel decided to join the soldiers to improve the odds of retreating, even by a little.
In short, Daniel was only acting in a direction advantageous to his survival.
Of course, to the soldiers who couldn't know his inner thoughts, their Chief of Staff, resolved to fight alongside them, appeared nothing short of holy and noble.
"Chief of Staff, sir?"
"You must evacuate to a safe place......."
"We will defend this place."
The soldiers, who normally respected Daniel Steiner, tried to dissuade him, but Daniel refused to step back.
"No! I shall fight here with you all! What meaning, I ask, is there in fleeing to a safe place and saving one's life! Can that truly be called living? I dare say, turning one's eyes away from the battlefield and running is no different from death!"
He meant it.
Unlike the soldiers, Daniel would die the moment he was captured by the Allied Nations.
And it wouldn't be a simple death; he was practically guaranteed to die after gruesome torture.
So he had stayed here, meaning it as a plea to fight together.
"My soldiers! We are the spearhead and vanguard of the Empire! Even if the Allied rats have dared to launch a surprise attack, how could we, the sharpest sword of the Empire, possibly break!"
Shouts of 'No!' rang out from every direction.
Just after a brief silence, Daniel looked over the soldiers' faces and nodded.
Kwaang!
An explosion near the trench triggered tinnitus in his ears.
Amidst the dirt raining back down, the soldiers held their positions and opened fire on the approaching enemy.
In the chaos of gunfire and explosions, Daniel pressed himself against the trench wall.
Leaning against the earthen wall, Daniel let out a low sigh.
'Damn it. When the hell are the friendly forces coming.'
The reason Daniel was holding the retreat route was to buy time until the friendly main force, which had pushed deep into the enemy command center, could pull back.
Since the bulk of the forces was concentrated there, they had to be withdrawn somehow to achieve a complete retreat.
On the other hand, the Allied Nations were in a difficult situation because they needed to block the retreat route to mount an encirclement attack, but Daniel was preventing them from doing so.
'I don't know how much longer I can hold out.'
He was holding them off as best he could, but it was only a matter of time before the enemy pushed through and cut off the retreat route.
'If even Lucy or Frien were nearby, it might be different, but.......'
He had sent them off toward the enemy command center, ostensibly to observe the Division Commander's movements, so he couldn't rely on them either.
In the midst of his anxiety, the head of the soldier who had been firing the machine gun wildly from the trench burst with a Peok! sound.
Immediately, another soldier grabbed the machine gun, but he too soon fell backward, a bullet through his head.
Just as he was watching that scene in bewilderment, a radio message came through.
— Sniper! Fuck! There's a sniper in the watchtower to the northwest!
Daniel, who had heard the report, closed his eyes and groaned.
'When did he get up there. Or was he there from the start.'
He didn't know for sure, but if he left the sniper alone like this, the enemy's advance would only accelerate.
Deciding he had to deal with him, Daniel opened his eyes and glanced to his side.
He saw a young man, likely the radio operator, trembling with his hands clutching his steel helmet.
"Ch-Ch-Chief of Staff, sir. At this rate, we're all going to die......."
"I have no intention of dying. At least, not right now."
Having said that, Daniel grabbed the radio operator's rifle, which had been propped up in the trench, and rose to his feet.
Perhaps spotting Daniel, the sniper began to turn his muzzle toward him.
In that instant, Daniel used neural acceleration and shouldered the rifle.
After steadying his breath, Daniel gauged the distance to the sniper, then assessed the wind direction.
'The distance is roughly five hundred meters.......'
It was far, but it was barely within effective range.
In a world where everything moved in slow motion, Daniel focused his concentration to its limit and pulled the trigger.
Ttaang─
The instant the bullet left the muzzle, the neural acceleration deactivated.
The bullet, imbued with Daniel's mana and racing forward explosively, pierced straight through the sniper's head.
When the sniper, his head bursting with blood, toppled over, cheers erupted among the soldiers who witnessed it.
"The sniper bastard is dead! Grab the machine gun again!"
"The Chief of Staff took care of the sniper! He's fighting alongside us!"
"Alright! Let's give it a shot! You sons of bitches!"
Daniel, having confirmed that the soldiers' morale had been boosted, ducked back into the trench.
As he caught his breath, the radio operator was blinking at him with a look of astonishment.
To him, Daniel, who had neutralized the enemy sniper with a rifle, appeared wondrous.
Of course, Daniel found it just as wondrous.
'I didn't know if I could hit him.......'
In any case, it was the moment he had thought he was lucky to have been able to handle the sniper.
Kwaaang!
The roar of a tank cannon sounded nearby.
At first, he thought an enemy tank had already reached the trench, but Daniel's face lit up when he confirmed the sound came from inside the retreat route.
'They've finally arrived!'
The armored units that had been isolated deep within the enemy command center had begun to link up.
Thinking they could now retreat, Daniel grabbed the radio and shouted.
"The main force has joined us! Project your firepower one last time, then prepare to withdraw! I say again! The main force has joined us! Project firepower one last time, then withdraw along with the main force!"
Believing he had succeeded in securing the retreat route, Daniel put down the radio and let out a sigh of relief.
The radio operator looked at Daniel with awe, as if he were a god.
......Did I not say.
Aware of the gaze, Daniel turned his head. He looked at the radio operator and gave a faint smile.
That I have no intention of dying here today.
*
Thanks to Daniel securing the retreat route, the 7th Armored Division was able to safely withdraw to friendly lines.
Considering they'd been bombed and then hit by a surprise attack, they sustained only minimal damage.
Because of this, despite the defeat, the morale of the friendly forces hadn't dropped significantly.
The focal point of that morale was Daniel Steiner. The fact that he had not only predicted the enemy's surprise attack but had also fought alongside the soldiers to the very end had a tremendous effect.
Of course, Daniel had no great interest in such things.
Relieved merely to have survived, Daniel was walking to the command tent to check on the survivors and take stock of the situation when he suddenly stopped.
It was because he ran into Intelligence Staff Officer Pelf on the way to the command tent.
Looking utterly exhausted, Pelf spotted Daniel and hurriedly walked over.
"Chief of Staff, sir."
Pelf, who had bowed his head in greeting, spoke as if ashamed.
"I'm sorry. If I had known things would turn out this way, I should have agreed with your opinion at the operations meeting instead of remaining silent......."
"That's in the past. Right now, stabilizing the army takes priority over asking forgiveness. Where is the Division Commander."
Pelf was silent.
When Daniel tilted his head, finding that odd, Pelf quietly opened his mouth.
"Regrettably, the Division Commander was caught up in the bombardment and killed in action."
What? Before Daniel could even be flustered, Pelf continued speaking.
"Therefore, in accordance with the chain-of-command succession procedures......."
Pelf raised his head, and gravity filled his eyes.
"From this moment on, you, Chief of Staff, are the Temporary Commander of the 7th Armored Division."