REIWA JIGOKUHEN - Chaotic Disturbance of Reiwa Era

Chapter 75 - Prelude

Santa Barbara, California: Coastline

This area would have been a college campus, but was now about to become a waterfront camp. Students were either evacuated or had picked up their guns, and the once-colorful school building had been transformed into simple camouflage-colored strongholds. Trenches run across the green lawns, equipped with heavy machine guns and anti-tank guns.

Immediately after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, this area was once bombarded by Japanese Navy submarines and fell into chaos. But this was a far more vicious and truly cosmic threat. After all, the Japanese military was said to have aliens on its side. That this was true was evidenced by the fact that many of the divisions that had defeated the Germans in Europe were urgently returning home, leaving their heavy equipment behind. And the area on the West Coast, which had suddenly become the assumed battlefield, was completely unprepared for a landing operation.

"What do you mean by that, commander?" Major Acre, who commanded a battalion in the 4th Army Division, shouted over the telephone.

The telephone exchange in the city had been destroyed by the bombs, but the military had installed a new one, and it was still working.

"I've never heard of an indefinite hold order."

"Listen, Major Acre, this is serious."

The veteran commander of the 12th Infantry Regiment sounded strained.

"We now know what happened when the Soviets fought the Japanese. You know that the goddamned enemy coalition will snipe at key targets... and they'll be destroying the chain of command first. Most of the Soviet division commanders in Siberia were dead almost as soon as the war started."

"Huh...?"

"I'd like to think it's a lie too... but there's a chance I'll be blown to bits before the battle even starts. Needless to say, it's the same for you. In a normal battle, soldiers die first, but now, it's the commanders who die before anyone else. I wrote my will a while ago, and I don't even know if it will reach home. Even the post office is being bombed."

The regimental commander's words were full of conviction, frustration, and resentment of unreason, and Acre felt as if his spine had come in contact with a prison of ice. The enemy was an entity that transcended military common sense, and everything was decidedly different from Normandy and Hürtgen. The fearful realization of this shattered his common sense into tiny pieces.

"Is that why you are so adamant?"

"That's right. I think there was once a case in which the French countered the Germans' armored warfare, a tactic of cutting through the nerves of the army with a scalpel, with a herd that had no nerves. After building a field fortification and filling it with men, equipment, and supplies, they ordered their garrisons to hold firm indefinitely. These units would reduce the brunt of the attack, while the main force would regroup and destroy the enemy's main force."

"But weren't the French outnumbered by the Germans?"

"That's right," the commander retorted. "But I can't see any other way to do it... you don't want to understand, but you must."

"Yes, sir... we do."

In a dejected tone, Acre managed to respond.

"Then, commander... have you received your equipment and supplies yet? The only thing we have in the battalion that is up to quota is the soldiers and rifles."

"They should arrive in three more days. Anyway, hurry up with the preparations."

"Understood. I will do what I can."