The battle reports from underground offered little comfort.
Lieutenant General von Ryan frowned deeply. The connecting tunnels had collapsed, many burrowing beasts had died inside them, and the surviving soldiers were struggling to hold on. If this continued, then...
"Lieutenant General."
Just then, a voice came from behind Lieutenant General von Ryan. He turned to see a blond, blue-eyed Kront serviceman walking toward him. At the sight of the man, his heart sank.
"How is the battle going?"
"The imperial troops are putting up much stronger resistance than we imagined."
Lieutenant General von Ryan treated the man before him with the utmost respect.
"But you still aren't planning to put all your cards on the table?"
"I... am considering it."
"I understand."
The man nodded, but his expressionless face showed no sign of agreement.
"However, the General Staff's position is that we must take Delai Port at any cost."
"But our advance isn't going smoothly, and that intelligence is highly suspicious..."
After a moment's hesitation, Lieutenant General von Ryan voiced his thoughts. To him, the attack on Delai Port had seemed strange from the outset. First, his superiors had sent intelligence that unrest would soon break out in Delai Port. Upon arriving, they had found things just as the intelligence described, and so they had launched their attack.
Yet the imperial troops behaved as though nothing had happened. Not only had they repelled his attacks, but reports from the underground front said they had blown up the tunnels from above several times, inflicting devastating losses on Kront's subterranean forces. There had also been reports from below about crazed imperial soldiers, but Lieutenant General von Ryan dismissed those as excuses.
Still, the Empire's response was so orderly that Lieutenant General von Ryan had to consider the possibility that this was a