Chapter 148: On Campaign

Chapter 148: On Campaign

Momo had to admit that it was extremely odd to find herself directing a dozen different species who she’d previously only fought against. Having gotten to know quite a few of Iztiliana’s locals, the ones who had actively rebelled and were supporting the Terran Alliance, there were moments when she now felt a bit queasy regarding her memories. She’d killed a lot of Kobolds, Goblins, Ogres, and more with her armored fists. Yet now those three species were the three most common of the local population who were willing to work with them. Conversely, nearly none of the Girallons or Gnolls had defected, and every last Formian had fought to the death. A dozen other races had more mixed representation, often related to just how long they’d been part of the Kurrick Empire. Not always, though. The Formians were relatively recent, but both their biology and culture had caused them to assimilate extremely quickly.

Frankly, despite her occasional moments of unreality in working with them, Momo knew she was one of the few handling the locals well. Too many of the soldiers, and depressing numbers of the Heroes who too, were still stuck in the mindset that they were all ‘monsters.’ Even a month on from taking the city, the majority of their own forces were struggling to adjust. Thankfully, there were enough that could handle dissociating the local civilians and defectors from their enemy to act as a buffer. In her area, in particular, that of using local labor and talent to expand their manufacturing as fast as possible, she was lucky. Logistics officers and rear-echelon engineers hadn’t exactly been the ones on the front-lines of the war, and thus had a much easier time adjusting to their suddenly being ‘good’ monsters around.

A good thing, too. They’d never have managed to hold onto Iztiliana over the last month, let alone finally be in a position to go on limited offensives again, without the locals helping out. It was those locals who had known enough about both the Empire and the Empire’s ‘Magitech’ to finally open up hundreds of avenues and options. From a dozen ‘enchantments’ that they’d been able to add in mass numbers to arms and armor using the local’s know-how, to ways to sabotage teleport arrays. Not to mention, of course, the local knowledge of Ziltmach and the Empire to know where and how to most hurt them.

Spoiling raids had started just a week ago. Attacks using Hovertanks, Shieldmaiden Mod IIs, Operator Scout Mechs, YoRHa Type Bs, and an Enhanced Air Defense Drones (EaDD) had struck out at relatively soft-but-important targets. Troops supply depots, breeding ranches for the non-sentient war beasts used by the enemy, teleport relays, and more. So far, it was only nibbling away at the edges of the enemy’s ability to execute their war. But they were hurting the Empire, as were the dozens of rebellions that had sprung up since they took the city, both on Ziltmach and some of the worlds the Empire had previously conquered.

Now, Momo just needed to keep expanding the Industrial Works that was taking over a huge chunk of their foothold city. The Factory Must Grow…

… … …

A2 activated the improved version of her Berserk ability that Izumi had come up with, using the burst of power it brought to cleave right through the Formian Champion. Distantly, she heard a cry of victory from her troops as the Champion fell, felt the surge and shift of the battlefield as they responded by throwing themselves even more energetically into the fight. The idea that she had troops was no longer as absurd as it once had been. Though she was still adjusting to the fact that so many humans were willing to follow her lead. The Monster Rebellion troops, as the mixed-species group were calling themselves after three months of congealing into something organized, bothered her less. Though they were still an admittedly bizarre addition to things all on their own.

Somehow, she’d become the Commander of the Lions of Terra and the First Combined Arms Assault Brigade.

She was genuinely baffled how that had come about, though she knew it had started clear back in Africa, when she’d organized soldiers cut off from their units into a major push on one flank of an enemy position. An action that had led to a victory-from-defeat moment and opened one of the African Greater Gates up to direct assault when they’d unexpectedly been able to take an enemy fortification nearly intact.

Still, however it had happened, the Lions were her unit now, and she was proud of them.

Originally just a company, for the assault on Iztiliana they’d become a regiment. Then, on Ziltmach, they’d been reinforced to a Battalion…and farther expanded still to an outsized Brigade by an influx of Rebel Units. She, with the help of a number of Type Bs, had been the only commander that could learn the local language fast enough to make use of the rebel troops at first. The fact that she was used to thinking in non-standard ways and could actually keep track of the various unique assets each set of new allies brought only solidified her as the best choice. They’d long since realized that the enemy was organized the way they were, in packets and groups, due to how varied their tactics needed to be to account for natural abilities. It wasn’t quite as bad as trying to make teams of disparate Quirk users, since the various species mostly had the same abilities as each other. But it still prevented a uniform army structure, and now it was the Alliance’s problem too, since they had a steady supply of locals wanting to fight.

Something that had enabled the very battle taking place all around her.

For the first time, she was leading her Brigade against one of the World Gates that kept transit between Ziltmach and their conquered worlds going. Far larger, yet also more efficient, than the Greater Gates, each World Gate served as a backbone for trade and unit movements between worlds. All without the same level of protection and shielding that Greater Gates got, as World Gates were civilian structures kept in already-secure areas.

Or what should have been secure areas.

The Empire hadn’t counted on enough of the defectors from their own forces understanding their teleport arrays to sneakily build one in an uncontested part of Ziltmach, right under their noses. Nor could they have easily conceived, given how much they hoarded it themselves, of their enemy hosing away massive amounts of QE, just to move a 6,000 strong brigade a thousand odd kilometers. The sheer surprise of the move meant that only a basic garrison force of around 5,000 had been here to meet them.

Still formidable, of course. Still dangerous, particularly given that this World Gate was the primary for the Formian Homeworld.

The fanatically-loyal Ant-Centaurs were a major problem, precisely because they were fanatics. Their species wasn’t quite a hive-mind, but it was close, and they’d adapted incredibly well to being part of the Empire of Kurrick as a result. They’d simply adjusted to the Empire being the new ‘Overmind,’ and organized themselves as their new ‘strongest leader’ demanded. So far, not a single Formian had defected, not even their civilians. Which made cutting their world off from Ziltmach an extremely tempting proposition. There were lesser Gates they could move through if the World Gate fell, but not in anything like the same numbers. Something which made this battle one of the highest stakes operations since the capture of Iztiliana itself.

Her killing of the Formian Champion, with the resultant surge from her own troops, bought A2 a few moments to take a look over the overall battlefield. She hadn’t lost sight of it completely, tapped into the various aerial drones and more than capable of monitoring them while she fought. But those drones were bobbing and weaving in and out of combat themselves, leaving her with only a general grasp of the battle rather than a true overview. Now, as she let the surge of her own forces overrun her position so she could focus more properly on the big picture, she noted a few places that the over-eager rush was causing to collapse. Mentally, she directed two of the Type Bs to shore up those positions, even as she picked out the next officer leading the Formian side of the battle.

There was always another one.

One of the things that made the Ant-Centaurs particularly annoying to fight is that they wouldn’t break. All of them knew exactly where they were in the chain of command, right down to the last and lowliest grunt, and would keep organized right to that last fighter. Of course, they weren’t a true hive-mind, which meant that the loss of their equivalent to ‘officers’ did degrade their overall performance, as those Fromians in leadership roles were the ones that were best at handling the big picture. A true meritocracy of sorts. Even now, she could see the enemy was breaking into smaller chunks and fighting on a more tactical than strategic level. With the Champion dead, there was no other officer in the host who could handle the whole defense with their pseudo-connected not-quite hive mind.

Good.

Picking out one of the sub-leaders for herself, she issued a few more quick orders, then dove back into the battle personally. They were very obviously winning this fight. They just needed to make sure it happened fast enough that they could destroy the World Gate before reinforcements arrived…

… … …

Momo was, for perhaps the very first time in her life, regretting being so good at her job. It had been three and a half months since they’d captured Iztiliana and she’d started overhauling its industry to support the war effort. It had been an enjoyable challenge, and a nice change of pace to the constant fighting, or even the constant making things with her Quirk. She still did a little of the latter each day, producing advanced microchips that were a bit too difficult to manufacture locally just yet.

Unfortunately, she’d done such a good job overhauling Iztiliana, that when the Terran Alliance and Monster Rebellion captured the city of Gelivina, they’d asked her to do it again. After A2’s Lions had managed to cripple the region’s response by cutting off the only two World Gates on this half of the continent of Relikke, the second city had fallen to a prolonged siege effort that had lasted the better part of a month. It was another major victory, one that had seen another sharp rise in rebellions all over Ziltmach as the servant and slave castes began to believe the Empire could lose.

Building up the industry in the newly captured city was a worthy cause! They’d even let her handpick a team of locals from Iztiliana that were good managers, in order to make the build up go smoothly. Yet, even with that, it would likely take at least another month and a half before she’d be done. By which time they’d probably have taken another city, if talk from above was accurate. Which was all to the good…

Except that she really missed Izumi and Kyoka, both of whom were back on Earth.

Kyoka’s choice to stick to the Hero Course meant she was being run fairly ragged handling increasing tensions back in Japan’s cities. While initially crime had been at a low ebb during the invasion, with everyone focused on an outward enemy, success in the war had brought its own problems. Earth’s major cities were all covered by RADS arrays now, and too many people were crunched into the tight confines of those cities. With every major victory, fear of the monsters at the borders declined, and crime between those confined together rose. It didn’t help that there were fewer police and Heroes per civilian than ever, with the needs of the war having taken a huge bite out of those available.

Meanwhile, Izumi was fully buried up to her eyebrows in all of the Aegis Inc projects, while also helping the UA Think Tank devise better methods to repel the ocean-borne threats that were rapidly becoming an issue for Japan. Other parts of Earth were still suffering more from Rifts and Rift Bubbles, despite the drop in the number of both caused by the invasion of Ziltmach. Japan, being an island with no more Greater Gates, was instead being hit regularly by ocean based raiding forces. Something which had only amped up when the Empire had discovered their home was the primary source of equipment like the Shieldmaidens. It was under control, for now, but Izumi could no more leave to come to Momo than Momo could go to her.

It really sucked when an Alien Invasion and too great a sense of responsibility got in the way of headpats, cuddling, and an energetic sex life. Clearly, they needed to finish the Empire off as fast as possible…

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AN 1: This chapter basically serves to show how the military campaign on Ziltmach is going, without bogging down the story with a lot of battles. Izumi and Momo aren't directly involved in the fighting too much any longer, so focusing heavily on them wasn't what I wanted. Instead, it shows more of both the logistical side and the adjustment needed to go from thinking of all the monster races as enemies, to thinking of some of them as allies.