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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Director, the 33rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade has successfully broken through the Kassel River. There was no clash with the 7th Guard Regiment.”
“That’s fortunate. Send our liaison officer to the regiment to share the situation in real-time. Tell them we’ll clean up any mess if something goes wrong.”
“The special reconnaissance unit organized by Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Durand has also approached the outskirts of the capital. They’re about to begin occupying the power substation.”
“Riots have broken out in the capital. The police force is somehow pushing back, but their momentum seems weaker than expected.”
“That’s just about right. After all, the guys led by Matteus are just thugs.”
The Strategic Security Agency’s field command post, which was leading this operation, never had a moment of quiet.
It was a coup d’état.
As it needed to be handled perfectly and swiftly, they had to collect information coming from all directions and make only the best choices and coincidentally, Luthers Edan was a person well-versed in ‘choices’.
“The 33rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade will continue straight on and wait in Baltan in the southern part of the capital.”
Baltan, which was essentially a subcenter of the capital Hoenbaren, housed armored units due to its geographical characteristic of having few urban areas.
Most of the few armored forces of the Capital Defense Command were also near Baltan, so the mechanized infantry brigade was tasked with disrupting these forces while simultaneously blocking the route if things went wrong.
“What’s the situation with the 103rd Infantry Division led by Major General Gunther Braun?”
“They’re currently advancing after scraping together all available troops. Instead of entering the capital directly following the mechanized infantry brigade, they’ll form a front in the north by making a wide detour.”
The 103rd Division, as a regional defense division, was significantly smaller in scale compared to other divisions.
It was a light infantry division already lacking in combat power and mobility, so recklessly deploying it to the capital would be like throwing away valuable troops.
They were assigned the role of blocking nearby units, including the northern node.
As long as they held out, it wouldn’t be easy to push through them since they were friendly forces.
Moreover, the northern command was where Major General Gunther had originally been stationed.
Given that most of his old acquaintances, superiors, and peers were stationed there, they couldn’t just push in arbitrarily against orders from above.
‘A coup can be successful with barely 10,000 troops.’
While those corrupt military forces, including the President, might have been complacent thinking it impossible, Luthers Edan had once held off a Titan offensive on the capital Hoenbaren with just 3,000 troops.
Compared to that, having nearly 10,000 troops was a blessing.
Moreover, Arthur Philias was also moving independently, so it was a fight with sufficient chances of winning.
“Former general-level personnel who were detained in Ashblinka have also joined. The 81st and 116th Brigades of the 8th Division have decided to join.”
“There’s also word from the airborne brigade! The Special Warfare Command has sent firm assurance that they will not deploy troops under any circumstances!”
What the President had overlooked was the rapid backlash within the military.
Even though the military was an organization that needed proper control, wasn’t the recent purge too strongly driven by ‘political’ purposes?
The cauldron was boiling, and no one was going to just stand by and watch.
Those classified as the President’s close associates had already secured their positions.
The majority of generals and war heroes were just licking their fingers while taking a step back from the feast.
Would they want to be pushed to the back room either?
Even those who were about to quietly lay down their positions and leave began to tremble with anxiety with the birth of Ashblinka.
[The President doesn’t want soldiers. He wants dogs that will be loyal to him.]
[What’s his reason for going this far? Other countries have already become crippled, so he probably thinks there’s enough chance of winning even if he grinds up all of the elite troops.]
[I’m just thinking of retiring. If the President has something in mind, won’t he call?]
[You’ll be under surveillance for life, and if you slip up once, it’s straight to the camp, right? Can you guarantee that won’t happen?]
And for their sake, Luthers Edan himself had taken up the knife handle.
He was raising the blood-dripping blade high into the sky and shouting towards them.
Saying that he would shoulder all the guns himself.
That he didn’t even want their help, just asking them not to interfere.
They couldn’t help but be persuaded by the words of Luthers Edan, the Lion of Defense, who had written an unparalleled myth among the numerous war heroes.
“Director, we should start moving soon. The front line is pushing forward. Once the power plants and telephone offices covering the capital area are occupied, the communication situation will become quite poor.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
Luthers Edan rose from his seat.
He was wearing the dark green army uniform he had worn when serving as the Graveyard Fortress commander, not the black dress uniform of the Strategic Security Agency.
He pulled his cap down firmly and strode forward confidently.
“We’re heading to the capital now.”
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A meeting just as urgent as the one at the Strategic Security Agency’s field command post was also taking place in the capital Hoenbaren.
Specifically, in the bunker beneath the President’s residence and the Supreme Command Headquarters.
“Your Excellency! I will immediately mobilize all of the forces of the Western Command to secure a blockade line!! It’s barely 10,000 troops, isn’t it? We can completely annihilate them with just our two divisions!”
[Commanders gathered here, listen well. You all know how ridiculous this whole situation is. However, the forces are far too insufficient to realize that grand cause.]
“We don’t necessarily need the Western Command to come. The Capital Defense Command forces alone are enough to stop them!”
[Even if the legendary war hero is orchestrating everything, the difference in weight class is not easily overcome.]
“I’ve issued standby orders to the mechanized brigades in the Baltan direction. With Your Excellency’s order, we’ll crush those light infantry bastards right now.”
[If those massive armored units are our opponent, even Brigadier General Luthers Edan won’t be able to easily secure victory. That’s why we desperately need the strength of the aviation group commanders.]
“Capital Defense Commander, how much equipment is currently available?”
[If the Supreme Commander is referring to attack rotorcraft, each aviation group except the 2nd has one company assigned.]
“A total of 120 units including armored vehicles and tanks.”
[No matter how much armor they mobilize, we can annihilate them in an instant.]
“What’s the closest force we can mobilize?”
[In any case, the President and his cronies probably won’t even care about our air defense brigade. If we mobilize air defense armored vehicles too, it would be a great help in countering them.]
“Suppress the riots as ruthlessly as possible. It doesn’t matter whether they’re innocent or not. If there’s even a bit of noise at such a crucial time, the regime will collapse.”
[However, we must thoroughly protect the citizens. Have the helicopters of the aviation groups, which can’t carry offensive weapons, fly at low altitudes to check on the safety of citizens, and mediate if conflicts with the police intensify.]
“As the Chief of Police, I’ll take responsibility and throw all of those bastards in jail!”
[The 2nd Aviation Group will take care of it. As the 1st Group Commander said, we don’t have offensive equipment.]
Coincidentally, Titans didn’t fly through the air.
Of course, if there had been absolutely no countermeasures, the whole world wouldn’t have been devoured by Titans.
They had the ability to shoot down even supersonic fighter jets, and the sky naturally became a ‘no man’s land’ that no one could claim power over.
Every fighter jet or helicopter deployed was shot down, so it was better to divert those precious personnel elsewhere.
This led to the Empire’s once brilliant and powerful air force essentially becoming an auxiliary unit of the army, resulting in the distorted structure where 620,000 of the 700,000 national troops were in the army.
The only air force assets the Empire currently possessed were transport planes and helicopters, which were operated from safer locations as a principle.
Even those had been neglected and outdated for a long time.
This was why no one had sought out the aviation group commanders under the Supreme Command, even though they were all gathered.
They had all become obsolete in the completely reversed paradigm of war.
That was why Arthur Philias was able to wedge himself into that gap.
Before the world was devoured by Titans.
Before the President threw the Emperor before the masses and newly grasped the throne of the Empire.
He was the man who had survived since then and become the most senior in the military.
If the President was the embodiment of politics, Arthur Philias was a giant old tree.
A diligent old tree that silently did its job even in a world burning with chaos.
Isn’t the thorn produced over accumulated years the sharpest?
“You can trust and leave it to us!”
[Won’t you trust me once?]
“For our great President!”
[For our homeland and those who have gone before us.]
At 01:00 local time.
The 42nd and 65th Divisions under the direct control of the Western Command were urgently deployed.
The forces under the Capital Defense Command also moved to strategic points for capital defense in full battle gear according to the plan.
Simultaneously, emergency deployment orders were issued to the five aviation groups under the Supreme Command.
Fuel was supplied to the armored vehicles of the 1st Air Defense Artillery Brigade, which hadn’t been activated since the war.
Over the capital Hoenbaren, the clouds of civil war began to loom.
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[VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!!]
