Battle for Graham City: Diem Perdidi; “I have Lost the Day”
“Alright class, sit down please, we have long day ahead of us!” said Mr. MacDonald with a slightly raised voice to be heard over the din of students and the ringing bell signifying the beginning of class. “So no announcements for today, just make sure to be finished reading the chapter on the Calanian front of Operation Galactica by tomorrow, because your essays on the War are due at the end of the week, so you don’t want to get behind.
“So, to continue where we left off, the armies of the Strategic Alliance were at the proverbial doorstep of the Lowland Clans. They were laying siege to the capitals of three member-states,” he paused as the members of his modern history class chanted back to him, “London, Athens, and Glasgow,” he smiled, “Thank you, and so they were attacking Graham City as well. So can anyone who actually read chapter 17 tell me why the League forces, primarily the Alliance and Bazalonian forces, had had such a difficult time defeating the Starblaydi forces?”
Eddy raised his hand, “The Starblaydi forces routed them on open land.”
“Good answer Eddy, unfortunately you didn’t finish reading chapter 17,” the class chucked together and Eddy smiled and turned slightly pink with embarrassment, “had you actually done your reading, you would discover that eventually generals Julian Sykes and Henry Campbell, who took command of the Army forces defending Graham City, had been preceded by generals who were afraid to completely engage their forces. There were at least three battles before hand, including the Rescue Action for the 13th Army Group in Okerson where the League forces had a chance to do heavy damage to Starblaydi forces and declined to prosecute their attacks to the very end of their forces.
“Sykes and Campbell however, were two very different men, and would soon remind both the Supreme Headquarters-League Expeditionary Forces and the Starblaydi Army…”
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John Patrick Kingsley stood on the deck of the ASS Winston Churchill, who was now cruising away from Graham City. After saving the 13th Army Group, most of the Armed Forces had to make a hasty retreat from the battle area. The remainders of the 15th Army Group that had smashed up and broken against the Starblaydi forces had joined them at Garrison Point NorthEast England (GP NEE) the try to regain some of the initiative, but the rout at Sagdineo let Starblaydi forces advance at an amazing rate, and they had reached Liverpool in just three days. A defensive line had been established at Portsmouth, protecting the ships who were repaired and rearmed as fast as possible, so that should the Royal Portsmouth Drydocks be overrun, the Lake Bekk fleet would still be able to menace the ground forces on the coast of the Kingdom.
In the east, things were a little brighter. The ASAF had managed to slow the Starblaydi advance, using their command and control and integrated battle network to hit back the moment an advance was reported, and be gone by the time the F-23S’ were in the air, ready to return the favor. But there was a lot to be said for momentum. The Starblaydi Armed Forces had advanced nearly as far as Manchester, with a small pocket around Portsmouth, where the entire 12th Army Group, along with detachments of Bazalonian troops supported by the Justus and the other elements of the Fleet B1. That was the first sign the Starblaydi and Footballian forces were going to run into trouble. But it was one good piece of news in a sea of bad. The NAO had declared a new Collective Order of Legalese, the Quirrith Plague-1, the mutated airborne version of the plague had spread with the non-mutated, weaken immune systems to the deadlier, non-mutated plague. It had infected most of England and Northern Scotland, and order was beginning to collapse. The ASA was stretched to the brink, with regular Municipal Police being conscripted by the Allied States Army, and being hastily thrown together into Military Police units.
For Starblaydia, the news was not much better. The oil that they so desired was flowing, but at indeterminate cost. The newly laid above ground pipes were vulnerable to air strikes and potential orbital bombardment from the Allied States Orbital Command. Groups of citizens organized into resistance cells were striking at Starblaydi Military Police stations in the Occupied States, and relations with the Collective were at a new low. Lucas vander Veer had escaped the KERES agents sent after him, and even had one hung from the gallows in front of the Sagdineo House of Law. Despite the resistance, it was not much more than mere annoyance, and Starblaydia pushed on, but her strategic momentum was beginning to dissipate. The plague targeted indiscriminately, and soon Starblaydi troops were falling ill. It was pure chaos, and there was nothing much that could be done about it.
Two weeks ago, the Starblaydi forces marched into Aberdeen, and blew away SDL forces at the Garrison Point London-Glasgow, cutting off the two capitals from each other. Oxford had been overrun and Starblaydi troops were ready to march on Athens. In a time span of almost six months, Starblaydia had marched clear across one third of the Alliance, captured most of England, and brought the conflict to a climax. With not a single defeat on land and sea, and only one decisive defeat in the air, her confidence was high. An unstoppable machine, her armed forces were advancing on the national capital, and three othet state capitals. This next month would be key. Most of the Allied States urban combat forces were in Graham City, London, Glasgow, and Athens. Strategic Defence League forces were but two weeks away.
Admiral/1st Bill Xavier walked up next to President-Elect Kingsley. It was a tense environment, with the cold wind biting through the thick lambskin aviator jacket and windbreaker that Kingsley wore. It was this hostile environment that the decision had been made by both Congress and the Cabinet to abandon the capital. It was a decision that no one knew exactly what the consequences of it would be. They had already contacted the Portuguese government, and were going to be set up in Porto. Most of Congress was on the merchant ships that were at the center of the Fleet A1. The Cabinet was in the Planning Room, along with the Joint Chiefs and GotAF Myers. Part of the fleet was combat ready, but most of it was scarred from the six months of near constant fighting.
“I never wanted to flee Bill.”
“I know, Mr. President. But it had to be done. You being dead is no good to the Alliance or to the League. You need to be alive to keep up the fight. You’ll be the first one back in when the League forces retake the City. Besides, it may not even fall. The forces we have will be more than enough, and our armed forces are built for urban combat Mr. President. We will triumph.”
President-Elect Kingsley stood there quietly. It was an uncommonly cold year, and they were predicting that it would finally warm up in April, but that was a month away. By them, the battle for the Lowland Clans would be over one way or another and a winner would most likely be known. “Bill,” asked the President quietly, “Where is your family?”
“Ben is fighting with the 9/3/9th in Athens, and Joanne is staying with some friends from school in Pacitalia. Elisabeth is staying with Tina in Canada, and has plans to move to Bedistan should things go south.”
“That’s good to know.”
They gazed out together over the sea, at the many vessels that composed the fleet that was fleeing to Portugal. Kingsley sighed rather deeply, and he admitted to himself that’s really all he had been doing lately. The war was out of his hands for the most part, and could be fought only on the ground. The strategies that the Joint Chiefs and the Department of Defence was being put into place, and a last stand was being made, and there was nothing more to be done. All he had to do was sit, and await the outcome of the battle.
“Mr. President, I just thought I should let you know that you look exhausted. When was the last time you got some sleep?”
“I haven’t been able to. Nightmares, mind racing, you know.”
Admiral Xavier turned and looked at President-Elect Kingsley. “Have you taken any pills?”
“No, that’s the last thing this country need, is their President-Elect getting addicted to sleeping pills during the middle of the biggest war that this nation has seen in modern times.”
“Good.” Xavier saluted and left, pondering about the state of the man who was leading them through the not-so-proverbial Valley of the Shadow of the Death
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Sergeant/1st Jeremy McFadden of the 9/4/6th stood at one of the defensive crossings on the outskirts of Graham City. Well, what could only be loosely called the outskirts of the city. Graham City was a massive city, no one needed to tell them that. McFadden was one of the few from his platoon from the rural areas of the Alliance, and he never really did get used to it, the massive city sprawl that is. Even though Graham City was incredibly complex, spreading both under and above ground, it still took up a lot of space, and the Allied States Army would use that to its advantage. As he patrolled the positions set up by his team to defend against the incoming Starblaydi Army, he was going over the plan that Lieutenant/3rd Kilgarney had given him and his squad. They were assigned a ring of three stations along a set of residential buildings in the Hightcrest section of the city.
Graham City was of course, built from the ground up during the founding of the Alliance, and thus gridlike in layout, especially in the more modern areas outside of the Old Capital district, which were not built to house the millions that now call Graham City home. The Highcrest district was one of the more affluent areas in the city, and was very much an upper-middle class district, sprinkled with a goodly portion of upscale retail outlets, and smaller scale Highcrest-centric commercial development. Of course, the key that whole sentence was the past tense. Most of Highcrest had been abandoned as the Starblaydi Army advanced on the city. This of course, presented a difficult issue of the huge numbers of civilians that had to be evacuated from their homes, and those who stayed. They would be dodging tanks and rockets and Starblaydi infantry. It was the first time that the capital would be experiencing warfare in its history.
Graham City was not just the capital of the Lowland Clans, with great symbolic importance, but was a huge transportation hub, connecting the four British member-states with the rest of the nation. The sea-road-rail transport hubs in the Port, Lowland and Southend Districts would allow Starblaydia to cement their occupation of the northern Alliance, and provide an open invasion path to the rest of the Alliance. The loss of Graham City wouldn’t end the war, but it would almost certainly place the SDL forces in need of a miracle to survive the war. However, once the reinforcements from the mainly Khazaronian and Lamonian force, it would certainly make the defence of the city much easier, if the rail lines leading into the city remained intact.
McFadden found himself now at the platoon’s main position of strength, the ground floor of an office tower located at the first big intersection along Highcrest Road Sections one and two. They had set up a small ammo dump and set of explosives in several buildings around that had been evacuated to collapse onto the road. The Engineering Corps had done the work, and all the Lieutenant had to do was push a button and the road in front of them, which lead to a gas station and several other key facilities needed to retain control of Highcrest were located. It would also serve as a causeway to try to seize the main Highcrest Road, which turned into one of the three tunnels that lead into the rest of the City.
BOOM! The sound of the two artillery pieces rocked Jeremy in his place. The battle had begun.
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Major General/3rd Julian Sykes stood in the command room under 16 Canford Street, which was now full of simply military personnel. The equipment that could not be used to monitor the progress of the military operations in Graham City was discarded, and new equipment brought in. The once neat and nearly obsessively clean room now was dusty in places, and offices had been turned into impromptu storage areas, leading to a general sense of mess that was present in all battlefield headquarters. That however, was the last thing on General Sykes mind. Elements of the 1st Starblaydi Army had already entered the Highcrest District, and were quickly advancing along the rest of the city, and would soon enter the rest of the northern part of the City.
While he did not have the natural protection say a river provided, he had something close to it in the mountain range that grew up out of the ground in the north-easternmost Hillrise District. It continued at about a 20 degree grade across the city, and grew into the Dagernharm Mountain range that forked at Longford and stretched to Zagreb and just past Cork. But the tunnels were well built and would probably sustain all but the heaviest bombardment, and so he couldn’t close the crossings, but he did intend to use them to his advantage.
There was very little he could do tactically at this point, but he already had plans. The Glaswegian Highway was still open, and he intended to use that to his advantage. The 4th Starblaydi Army was advancing on Glasgow specifically, but most of their forces had been devoted to the capture of Graham City. A quick glance at his operational map that showed detailed information of his units and the suspected forces approaching, and told him the he lacked the operational imperative and opportunity to launch a counter-attack using the highway as a launching point, but it certainly was in his plans.
He was already distributing his reserves that were coming up to defend the City in such a way that he was favouring defence of the highway. But he had to it slow, so as to not provoke the interest of Othello Munez, commander of the 1st Starblaydi Army, and Supreme Commander of Alliance Forces, East. Sykes brother in command, General/1st Henry Campbell arrived and saluted. “I have the finished plans of the counter-attack, as well as the defence of the city. It will be a tough thing, as well have to draw in the Starblaydi forces far enough that we can get at their supply lines with an attack from the Highway, but we cannot allow them to capture the key points around the city, here, here and here.” He pointed at three points on the projected map, which were highlighted by glowing red flags.
The Allied Rail Depot in the Second District, just to the north of the Old Capital district and just twenty kilometres from the primary rail tunnel. It also was the main station for the Metro Rail Transit system, the local subway system that was very well developed. The second was the William Graham Port Authority facilities in the Port District, which allowed the Alliance to feed those who were still here. The civilians had yet to leave most of southern Graham City, particularly the Greenway District and the Newbourne District, and even in the North some simply had no place to go. It was going to be a huge danger for the Alliance forces. The Starblaydi Army showed no care for civilian casualties and had already been bombing London for two weeks now, but had been unable to attack with aircraft because of the strong defences around the capitals of Glasgow and Graham City.
The final spot was of course the building he was standing in, 16 Canford Street. Nelson Square, commemorating the famous Admiral as well as all the following Admiralty and across the way was the Congress of Alliance, and the Supreme Court of Alliance was just down Canford Street. It was incredible. They had a large task ahead of them. As if to confirm his thoughts, the lights flickered over head. A young private who was watching the developments to the north said, “First contact has been made. The battle has begun.”
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The explosion rocked Jeremy McFadden’s brain. The explosion was the bringing down of the two buildings that the company headquarters had just been. The buildings fell onto the road, and crushed two Gilgamesh tanks that had been advancing along it. Three Crawler Lights scurried in their eerie fashion over the rubble into the on coming forces. Their machine guns and smallish, 75mm cannons smashed into the Starblaydi forces. Two AH-7 Mjolnir helicopters flew overhead, raking the Starblaydi positions with rocket fire before quickly withdrawing down two side streets, avoiding reprisal. Starblaydia had come fast, and overwhelmed the initial defensive positions.
McFadden had received orders to retreat back to the last station on the Highcrest MRT Line, Commercial Station, which let out at the heart of the commercial district. He had already assumed command of the company, with the Lieutenant somewhere in the rubble about two hundred meters in front of him. He sent the orders through the AFAS network, and the infantry platoon began to withdraw. The Armoured Division would cover the battalion’s retreat, and as if on command, two Crawler Heavies and a Longhamner roared down the main Section 2 road, and the battalion beat their hasty retreat. Jamming into three troop trucks and a Humvee, they roared down the road. As they turned on to Highcrest, the road in front of them erupted into smoke and pebbles, as artillery and mobile anti-aircraft missiles were shot into the city. McFadden threw the Humvee into a wild turn that put it on two wheels. It tilted and finally slammed back upright. The rough and damaged road rattled his teeth as he drove past retreating infantry and wrecked tanks, even one or two still firing artillery pieces. The main turn-off had already been blasted to the point of being not traversable, and a Crawler Heavy had been forced to blast a hole in the buildings adjacent to the main turn-off to the station, giving a somewhat better road to the retreating forces.
They got to the station, and soon all but Sergeant McFadden, who had been ordered to stay behind briefly to report on the defence the Humvee, shouting instructions to his platoon. “Get to the trains! Wait for my orders before we go to get back to the next position! I’ll be along shortly; we’ll meet at the rendezvous point at Station Exit 2. Go!” He jogged up to the command post and ducked under the half-open flap. Colonel/2nd Collin Kelkien and his staff were waiting.
“Lieutenant McFadden, good to see you. Your company was able to hold out for much longer than we expected. The main offensive came with a lot more strength then we first anticipated, and so we’ve been overrun much quicker than we anticipated. We haven’t had a chance to get all of the trains from Commercial out of the station, and if we don’t the blasted Starblaydis will be able to advance much faster than we could defend against. They would be able to bypass a full regiment of defending troops! We need your platoon to get on the trains and send them back to the main station.” He turned to give the necessary set of instructions when all of the sudden McFadden’s vision went black. His ears were ringing, and he felt blood in his mouth.
It took him about a minute to realize what had happened. A lucky Starblaydi shell had hit the command post, levelling it and tossing him across the station. Soldiers were rushing to get to the underground station, and most had been tossed. It was a mess, but he had orders that still appeared on his objectives list, and he would fulfill them. He got up gingerly and limped towards Exit 2. His platoon had taken cover in the stairwell and was waiting for him. He transmitted their orders to the rest of the platoon, along with their actions since their computers hadn’t been given the instructions: destroy the trains. The depot was located in the rear of the station and just over a hundred trains were present and not being used for the evacuation.
The just wasn’t enough time to get all of the trains sent, and thankfully for the AFAS.net, everyone had known about it. The destruction of the command post had made this a priority action, and three other platoon-less soldiers joined up as they wrecked the trains. They saved one for their retreat. It was long work, taking almost twenty minutes. When the red immediate retreat sign went up in their vision, they activated their train. The station at this point was mostly deserted, and only a few more soldiers entered the train as they shot through the station, past the rest of the Hillcrest line and on through the mountain and to the regimental headquarters.
As they all breathed from the chaos that they had just passed by, drinking water and eating small chocolates or energy bars, they counted up trains. They had destroyed between 75 and 90 trains, but the rails were hopefully destroyed, thanks to the timed charge left behind by two engineers that had joined up with company during their flight from Commercial station. The newly minted Lieutenant McFadden breathed a sigh of relief. But he knew that the battle had just begun, and that this was going to be the first in a long set of panicked missions with an unclear chain of command. It was going to be the greatest and most terrible battle fought before, now and probably forever more.
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Supreme General Othello Munez of Starblaydia was looking at his maps as the assault on Graham City progressed. They had already taken control of two of the three districts north of the Mountains, and had secured two MRT lines to the rest of the city, but they had been badly damaged. But that was not what concerned him. He saw the increasingly large concentrations of troops in both Glasgow and Graham City who were defending the intercity wheeled highway. It was a strange place to be defending, as they had neither the strength for and kind of counter-attack, nor the ability to truly reinforce either position. Munez wondered exactly what they were up to. He decided to test them and see what their reaction was. He called up Colonel Iago Forlan, commander of his armoured regiments, “Forlan, I want you to attack the highway. Yes. The highway, they have a strange concentration of defensive positions, and I don’t know what they are up to. Yes, try to sever it. If you can, use to attack the city. If you can get to it, run for their Congress.” |
