Chapter 11

Akira watched as the last of the Chitose Marus sailed away, having unloaded its last crate of anti-aircraft missiles. The temporary headquarters of the Inazuman Ground Forces were extremely well-defended and well-designed - the finest architects anywhere. Fuel tanks, ammunition and food supplies were stored underground, guarded by soldiers and soil.

For the fifth time that day, she checked her position on the ridge - secure in solid bunkers dug by the Corps of Military Engineers and two companies of M9 Armored Combat Earthmovers. Pontus would attack soon - common sense told everyone that, from the constantly massing armies in the foggy depths of the dense forest on the other side of the river.

They would come. And then they would die.

VALKYRIE COMMAND TENT, ST. PETERSBURG, PONTUS

Rear Admiral and newly-reinstated Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Inazuma (DSACIN) Sangnomiya Kokomi read through the information she was being rapidly fed. 160 fighter-bombers and another 60 fixed-wing bombers were already positioned at Kypilvrr Air Base, taken from Pontus after a brief exchange. These were supplemented by around 100 attack helicopters and some carrier-based bombers.

She had been warned repeatedly about the power of Pontic artillery fire beforehand. Nevertheless, it still came as a shock to her as artillery tube fire and rockets alike fell indiscriminately around them. The Inazuman self-propelled guns carried out suppressive fire as infantry fighting vehicles and tanks inched towards the river.

Above, Nakajima G2N fighter-bombers and Kawasaki Ki-144 multirole all-weather fighters swept towards three E-6M Mainstay Pontic radar aircraft. Among them was Lieutenant Masuyo Hirabayashi in her Kawasaki Ki-154. The 154 was a stealth fighter recently researched by the Inazuman Aerospace Agency, and it handled like a flying box. This was partly due to her ungainly structure designed to reflect radar waves and absorb them, and the Valkyries in charge of R&D had decided to sacrifice grace and beautiful lines for secrecy.

Masuyo's Ki-154 - known as the Frisbee to the Air Force - quietly sped towards her target Mainstay as she took a deep breath. She'd done this at least ten times yesterday, and their own AC-600 Sentinels had barely been able to detect them at 60 kilometres. The Sentinel was a better radar platform than the Mainstay, wasn't it? She hoped she didn't have to find out. 

She could feel the apprehension creeping up on her as she neared. She was barely in range of the Mainstay now - her breath snagged as the Mainstay seemed to get a read on her — just a tiny bit.

She armed the Type 90 air-to-air missile on her left wing. There it is... she exhaled, and fired. The rocket slammed right into the fuselage of the E-6M and the Mainstay fell. Masuyo didn't stay to review her success and broke away, aiming to destroy a few more anti-air missile silos with her stealth advantage. 

As she quietly descended, she noticed Ki-177 Kaminari ground attack fighters raking through Pontic armoured lines and smiled. The Kawasaki Ki-177 was possibly the ugliest aircraft ever built for the Imperial Inazuman Air Force. Nearly all tactical strike aircraft had pleasing lines conferred on them by the need for speed and manoeuvrability, but not the Kaminari. Her twin turbofan engines hung like afterthoughts at the twin rudder tail, in itself a seemingly casual throwback to the thirties. Her slablike wings possessed not a whit of throwback and were bent in the middle to accommodate the clumsy landing gear. The undersides of the wings were studded with many hard points so ordnance could be carried, and the fuselage was built around the aircraft's primary cannon, the GAU-8 thirty-millimetre rotary cannon designed specifically to smash through Pontic armour.

Masuyo glanced back at the SA-11 antiaircraft missile vehicle she had in her sights and grinned. The missile she fired detonated two metres away from the SA-11 and tore it to pieces, the soldiers inside killed before the fuel tank detonated, igniting another fireball in a sky that had yet to return to darkness.

VALKYRIE COMMAND TENT, SAINT PETERSBURG, PONTUS

Kokomi, Miyuki and Miyune watched as the first Type 10 tanks began to cross the river on the stone bridges built by the Pontic architects. The Ki-177s continued to tear through enemy positions as one tumbled out of sight, its tail trailing smoke.

Kokomi closed her eyes. Yet another dead Valkyrie. How many more would there be by the end of the day?

PONTUS COMMAND TENT, SAINT PETERSBURG, PONTUS

General Pavel Alekseyev, deputy to CINC-EAST, watched absolute bloody carnage unfold from his BTR-90 command vehicle. HE had allocated 10 mechanized infantry and tank divisions to the defence, with two divisions kept in reserve as the Operational Maneuver Group (OMG). His orders were simple - to establish a breakthrough among the Inazuman lines, where the OMG would exploit the breakthrough and drive all the way to the coast.

However, nothing was going according to plan. His initial operation was to obtain aerial supremacy above the battlefield, and that had failed - his anti-aircraft systems had lost efficiency amongst the thick foliage, and the SA-11 missile silos were gunning indiscriminately for low-lying aircraft, be it Pontic or Valkyrian.

He growled as his deputy and aide, Comrade Mikhail Sergetov, put down his set of binoculars. "Give the order to withdraw. Our anti-air systems are useless here." As if to prove a point, a 9K22 Tunguska was ripped to pieces. Sergetov nodded, issuing the order.

Slowly, the twelve divisions began to withdraw under cover fire from seven battalions of artillery. Alekseyev watched as his T-90Ms drove away at full speed. His father had been a tank regimental commander as well, earning the reputation of a commander who was both competent and lucky. He had come face-to-face with Shouko's tank destroyers, retreated in good order and fought a constant mobile action before being caught in the great encirclement at Minsk. He had battled his way out of that trap and commanded a battalion spearheading another counterblow towards the suburbs of Saint Petersburg. Alekseyev's father had once again taken part in the disastrous counter-offensive towards Kharkov but escaped, leading whatever was left of his regiment from the dreadful meat grinder on the Dneiper River. With a brand new regiment later that year, he had led the drive that had nearly shattered the Inazumans, and been wounded twice in that campaign, earning him the reputation of a commander who was both good and fortunate. His luck had run out at Novosibirsk, where he had battled the elite commandos of division Sakurateikokū. Leading his T-80 tanks into a furious tank battle, Alekseyev's father had run headlong into an ambush of anti-tank guns. He had sacrificed himself, taking down two Type 72 105mm guns before a shell devastated his ammunition rack. For that, he had won the gold star of the Hero of Pontus no fewer than three times and a dozen other decorations - a glorified martyr. And people often whispered that Alekseyev was his father's legacy made flesh.

Right now, as he and Filitov clambered into the command BTR-90, he only felt his own burning humiliation and shame. So much for his father's legacy.

INAZUMAN COMMAND TENT, SAINT PETERSBURG, PONTUS

Operation Swift Strike was a complete success. Two of the priceless Frisbees and twenty-three strike fighters had been lost. Yet, all five Pontic radar aircraft and two hundred all-weather fighters had been destroyed. Because of this, Inazuma would maintain night air supremacy for now, and the land battle could be fought on nearly even terms.