Street Fighting Begins

Morin took a deep breath at the sound of the whistle. He cast one last look at the workers and artillerymen laboring at full tilt, then shouted to Andrei and Ludwig:

"I'm leaving this to you! Make as much equipment as you can for the remaining Armored Knights!"

Ludwig nodded firmly and thumped his chest. "Don't worry. We'll show those Britannian tin cans what we can do!"

Morin wasted no more time. He turned and sprinted toward the sector defended by his 3rd Platoon.

To his surprise, much of Seville had changed in the less than two hours he had been gone.

The potential people showed when pushed to the brink was astonishing.

While he and Ludwig had been testing the Can Opener, Saxon soldiers, fighters from the International Brigades, and Aragon's National Army troops had put Morin's street-fighting theory into practice under their officers' direction.

Streets that had once been wide were now broken up by uneven barricades of overturned wagons, damaged furniture, doors torn from buildings, and piles of stone.

Dense webs of barbed wire stretched across some of the main thoroughfares, glinting coldly in the sunlight.

Crowds of civilians fled with their families toward the relatively safe southern part of the city and the suburbs, guided by the more approachable soldiers of the International Brigades and the National Army.

A few elderly residents refused to leave their homes. At their neighbors' urging, they hid in their cellars and blocked the entrances with heavy wooden boards.

Time had been short, and many details Morin had stressed—connections between building interiors and concealed firing positions, for instance—were not yet fully in place.

Even so, Seville was beginning to take the shape of a street-fighting grinder.

Morin felt a little more at ease. Against soldiers who had never experienced the brutality of street fighting, especially attackers, these tactics would be deadly enough.

Still, he was far from certain. The soldiers had the benefit of his street-fighting theory, but they had never trained specifically for it. This would be their first battle in city streets too.

Even Morin did not know how it would turn out.

He glanced at the lines of information he had pinned to the System Map:

[Saxon Empire Air Force—Zeppelin-class armored airship L30]

[Status: Approaching destination]

[Estimated arrival time: 3 hours, 48 minutes]

"Less than four hours. We can hold out that long, can't we?"

When Morin ran back to 3rd Platoon's temporary position, panting for breath, Platoon Sergeant Klaus immediately came to meet him.

"You're back, sir."

Klaus's voice was as steady as ever. While Morin had been away, the platoon sergeant had organized 3rd Platoon's defensive sector with meticulous care.

"Battalion Headquarters just sent orders. Several platoons in 1st Company and 2nd Company took heavy losses, so they've been broken up to reinforce platoons like ours that are still largely intact."

Morin perked up. That was good news. After the earlier fighting, 3rd Platoon had taken its share of losses too.

"How many did we get?"

"Plenty," Klaus said. "We're back to full strength, with two extra infantry squads on top of that! The regiment's heavy machine gun company also gave us an MG08 Heavy Machine Gun crew!"

Morin was delighted. The reinforcements had arrived just when he needed them.

He immediately spread out the map, pointed to 3rd Platoon's assigned sector, and began issuing orders.

Perhaps Major Thomas and the senior officers at Brigade Headquarters placed particular value on Morin and his platoon's fighting ability. They had assigned them one of the few relatively broad streets in northern Seville.

The street was called Sun Boulevard, and it was the route the enemy was most likely to choose for its main push into the city.

Barbed wire had already been laid across the boulevard at intervals, and three main barricades of sandbags and masonry stood at the far end.

Every alley leading off either side had been packed tight with debris, leaving only a few narrow passages for their own people.

That left the enemy just one way to advance: straight down the street.

"Klaus, you and the other NCOs each take one or two squads and wait in the staging area. Once the enemy infantry moves up, get into the second and third floors of the buildings I've marked and set up overlapping fire along the street. Remember, seal every door and window on the ground floor. Go in from the back."

"Yes, sir!"

"Have the two newly assigned squads stay in the staging area as reserves and await orders. Keep them concealed. Don't let them reveal their positions without good reason."

A little later, more good news arrived: a 77mm Field Gun and a 105mm Howitzer had also been assigned to the sector.

Morin promptly concealed them behind the heavy machine gun position, with shrapnel rounds ready for the field gun and high-explosive rounds for the howitzer.

After deploying the bulk of his forces, Morin kept a ten-man group beside him, including two runners.

In an age without personal radios, they would carry his orders to every corner of what was certain to be a chaotic battlefield.

Only when that was done did he breathe a little easier and open the System Map.

Red markers representing the enemy crowded the outskirts of the city, slowly closing in around Seville.

According to the information displayed on those markers, the enemy had indeed received reinforcements amounting to at least two regiments. The Britannians' Northumberland Fusiliers had gained an entirely new battalion as well.

Their observation posts outside the city were pulling back steadily, and the areas they revealed on the map were shrinking with them.

One unit's icon stood out, however: the 52nd Cavalry Regiment, which had launched the decisive attack from behind on the high ground earlier.

Its marker showed that the regiment, still ranging outside the city, was down to 64% strength.

But the cavalry had not retreated. Like a pack of tireless wolves, they continued prowling the outskirts, looking for a high-value target such as the enemy's Command Headquarters or artillery positions.

Be careful, my friends, Morin prayed silently.

A few minutes later, the outermost red markers reached the edge of Seville.

Perhaps because the Magic Crystal Cannon Position had been badly damaged, the Royal Army began this assault without any preparatory bombardment.

Before long, the Royal Army and Britannian vanguards stepped cautiously into the city that was about to be engulfed by war.

Major John, the Britannian officer overseeing forward observation, was baffled.

"What's going on? Why is there no resistance?" he asked the Royal Army liaison beside him.

As he saw it, if the Saxons had chosen to hold the city, they should have concentrated all their forces on its outskirts and fought a proper, decisive battle from behind fortifications...

That was how soldiers of the Saxon Empire had always fought, at least in previous clashes in the overseas colonies.

Yet the outskirts were deserted, and the silence was unsettling.

"Could they have... given up defending the city?" the Royal Army liaison asked uncertainly. "Just handed it over to us?"

The idea was tempting, but it made far too little sense.

Major John frowned and waved a hand.

"Send the Royal Army in first. We'll follow behind. Stay alert!"

The first Royal Army soldiers gathered their courage and entered Seville's streets.

They moved slowly and carefully, their rifle barrels trained on every corner where someone might be hiding.

But after dozens of meters, they found nothing in the outer streets except scattered debris.

They gradually grew bolder, and their officers stepped out to either side to tighten their loosening formation.

Only when they reached the middle of a main thoroughfare marked on their map did they discover that the road ahead was blocked by a jumble of obstacles and barbed wire. There was barely room to set foot.

"What the hell are these Saxons playing at?" a Royal Army officer cursed. "Get a few men up there and cut through that wire!"

Several soldiers stepped forward with large wire cutters and ran toward the barrier.

They had just reached the wire and crouched down.

Bang!

A sharp gunshot shattered the dead silence.

Blood burst from the head of a soldier holding wire cutters, and he fell straight to the ground.

Then, as though it had been a signal—

Bang! Bang! Bang-bang-bang!

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!

All of Seville came alive.