Morin followed the officer, passing through the long internal corridor, and arrived at the Bridge located in the forward section of the airship.
The Captain of L28, the bearded middle-aged man who suffered a heavy loss during the day, grinned when he saw Morin.
“You must be Captain Morin? I heard about your plan. You truly are a bold fellow! Only a lunatic like you could co up with such a mad operational plan!”
Although his tone sounded like an insult, his eyes were full of praise and a hint of respect.
“You’re too kind, Your Excellency, Captain,” Morin replied with a smile. “I’m just doing what I should be doing.”
“Ha ha ha ha, alright, let’s cut the small talk.”
The Captain dropped his smile, his expression becoming serious. He led Morin to the aeronautical map and began to give him the final mission briefing.
“Captain Morin, according to the plan, the Armored Airship L29 will act as bait and initiate the attack first… They will attempt a round of close-quarters bombardnt and shelling on the Barchon Fortress and do their best to attract the fortress’s anti-air fire.”
“Our L28 will initially remain concealed in the clouds at an altitude of around 500 ters… Regardless of whether the enemy’s Magic Guided Devices open fire, we will imdiately descend to an altitude of around 200 ters as we approach the fortress cluster, and we will sweep over Liège City at maximum speed.”
“The jump window for your parachute drop will be very, very short, possibly only a few minutes… so you must seize this opportunity.”
Morin nodded, indicating understanding.
He asked another question: “Captain, does the use of the parachutes on the airship require specialized training?”
“Of course!” the Captain replied as a matter of fact. “They are not sothing you can just strap on and use. Without at least a week of ground and simulated training, jumping directly from the air is no different from suicide.”
Hearing this answer, Morin completely abandoned the idea of using the parachutes.
He ultimately decided to use the relatively safer [Feather Fall] spell to complete this unprecedented Air Drop operation.
The night deepened. At 21:00 sharp, the operation officially began.
The decoy Armored Airship L29 accelerated first, rushing toward Liège City, which was guarded by twelve fortresses, like a giant nocturnal beast.
Its massive silhouette was quickly exposed under the searchlight beams of the Barchon Fortress.
“Target sighted! It’s the Saxon Armored Airship!”
“Anti-air Magic Guided Devices, imdiately charge! Prepare to fire!”
The anti-air Magic Guided Device Commander inside the fortress imdiately issued the order the mont he saw L29.
They had thought the Saxons were beaten into submission, but they hadn’t expected the enemy to dare send an airship over to its death in the middle of the night.
The Captain of L29 coldly watched the hedgehog-like fortress below through the observation window. He knew the mission assigned to his Armored Airship, and he knew that the fate of him and his hundreds of crew mbers would be decided only by God.
“All turrets, Fire at Will! Drop all the bombs you have onto that damned tortoise shell!” he commanded through the communication system.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
The 203mm Naval Cannons on the airship began to roar, and aerial bombs, like rain, poured down from the opened bomb bay.
For a mont, the sky above the entire Barchon Fortress was shrouded in the firelight of explosions.
Perhaps due to the greatly increased difficulty of aerial observation at night, or perhaps the defenders were sowhat lax due to their victory during the day, the fortress’s anti-air Magic Guided Devices were slow to open fire.
It wasn’t until L29 had completed its bombing run and began to adjust course to disengage that the fortress’s anti-air Magic Guided Devices finally fired.
Three crimson, lethal rays of light once again illuminated the night sky, violently slamming into the L29’s Magic Shield and kicking up rounds of fierce magical reactions.
This dazzling light simultaneously illuminated the even larger black shadow hidden higher up in the clouds—the Armored Airship L28.
In the Magic Guided Device control room of the Barchon Fortress, the Magic Guided Technicians responsible for guiding the firing imdiately scread in despair the mont they saw the outline of L28 in the clouds.
They realized they had been fooled!
anwhile, the Captain of L28, the mont he saw the anti-air Magic Guided Devices open fire below, imdiately grabbed the microphone and roared out his command.
“Enemy anti-air Magic Guided Devices have opened fire! Attention all hands! Imdiately reduce altitude! Maximum thrust on the propulsion units! Accelerate and charge through!”
At the sa ti, he ordered a round of blanket bombing to use the firelight and smoke from the explosions to cover the impending Air Drop of the Assault Team.
Inside the cargo bay where Morin and the others were located, the lighting also turned dark red.
“Captain Morin, entering target airspace! Ready for Air Drop at any mont!”
An airship officer, secured by a safety rope, shouted to him. Imdiately after, the hatch door on the cargo bay floor slowly opened.
Morin stood at the edge of the open hatch. The night wind howled in, making his uniform whip loudly.
Looking down at the ground that was rapidly passing beneath them, bizarrely illuminated by the firelight and searchlights, his heart was, paradoxically, completely calm.
He felt himself enter a unique and subtle state, his mind clear, as if all the surrounding noise had vanished.
He calmly raised his hand and quickly chanted an obscure word.
Soft white lights flashed one after another, accurately enveloping all 20 Assault Troops, including himself.
Four [Feather Fall] spells were cast.
He turned around, smiling at the soldiers before him, whose faces were etched with nervousness and resolve, and shouted:
“Gentlen! I rember you often saying you are the Emperor’s blade! Today, I hope this blade can be plunged into the enemy’s heart!”
“Gentlen, see you on the ground!”
With that, he took two steps back, then turned without hesitation, took the lead, and leaped from the airship’s open hatch into the deep night sky below.
Morin’s swift and resolute leap was like a silent order.
The last trace of fear and hesitation that lingered in the minds of the Assault Troops instantly dissolved, flushed away by a surge of adrenaline, after seeing their commander’s back.
‘What are we afraid of?! The Battalion Commander jumped first, why should we chicken out!’
“For the Saxon Empire!”
A young soldier roared and followed, jumping from the hatch.
His action was like lighting the fuse of a powder keg.
“For the Emperor!”
The Assault Troops shouted and scread, jumping out of the cabin one after another like dumplings dropping into a pot, disappearing into the pitch-black night.
Manstein, who stood by the hatch, preparing to be the last to jump, watched this scene and felt an indescribable rush of excitent surge from his chest to the top of his head.
For a mont, all fear of the unknown and of death was burned away by this boiling passion.
Only one thought remained in his mind.
—’To fight alongside such brave n, I have no regrets even if I die!’
He took a deep breath, shed all hesitation, and leaped from the edge of the deck.
On the Bridge of the Armored Airship L28, the bearded Captain watched this breathtaking scene through the observation window.
He saw those twenty tiny figures throw themselves into the embrace of darkness without looking back.
Even for a veteran like him, who risked danger in the sky every day, the sight made his scalp tingle.
“They are a bunch of goddamn lunatics,” he muttered, using a tone mixed with respect and awe.
Imdiately, he grabbed the microphone and issued a command to the entire airship.
“‘Cargo’ Air Drop complete! Helmsman, imdiately increase altitude! Full speed to disengage from this damned airspace!”
The roar of the L28 Armored Airship’s engines echoed through the sky, and it imdiately cut a huge arc in the air, charging toward the safe night sky in the distance without a backward glance.
It left the defenders of the Liège Fortress in disarray on the ground, preparing to defend against a ‘second air raid’ that was never coming.
Weightlessness.
This was Manstein’s first sensation after jumping out of the hatch.
This was imdiately followed by the howling wind that filled his ears, making him almost deaf.
He instinctively closed his eyes, feeling his body falling, his heart pounding in his throat.
But a gentle yet powerful force enveloped his entire body, slowing his descent to the pace of a falling feather.
He tentatively opened his eyes.
What greeted his sight was a magnificent spectacle he had never witnessed before.
He was floating hundreds of ters in the air.
Below lay the formidable outlines of Liège City and the fortress cluster.
In the distance, the Armored Airships L29 and L28 were once again vanishing into the night sky.
Further away, the Saxon Empire’s artillery positions were continuously spitting fire, engaged in a fierce duel with the fortress’s gun emplacents.
The entire world seed to be on fire.
This… was war.
Morin, anwhile, adjusted his posture in the air. He felt like a feather, letting the wind carry him toward an unknown distance.
On the system map, the green dots representing himself and the 19 Assault Troops were scattered in the sky, slowly drifting toward the ground.
Their landing points were slightly more dispersed than anticipated. The two farthest points were over a kiloter apart in a straight line.
There was no helping it, jumping from an altitude of 200 ters, at night, and with unpredictable wind speed. Being contained within such a small radius was already considered good luck.
With a soft thump.
Morin felt his feet touch solid ground.
He had successfully landed.
He quickly unslung the submachine gun from his back and vigilantly scanned his surroundings.
This appeared to be farmland. The air was filled with the sll of soil and vegetation, and a country road seed to be nearby.
After confirming safety, he wasted no ti, imdiately opened the system map, and began to plan the route to regroup his forces.
Relying on the precise positioning of the system map, Morin traversed the dark fields like a player with a full map hack.
He quickly found his first target.
It was a Corporal from the 2nd Company, lying bewildered in a vegetable patch, still trying to figure out where he was.
“Hey, snap out of it!”
Morin walked over and patted the heltless cap on his head—the Grand Duchy of Flanders infantry did not wear helts.
The Corporal jumped, spun around suddenly, and only let out a long sigh of relief when he saw it was Morin.
“Sir! I thought it was the enemy!”
“The enemy wouldn’t find you as quickly as I did,” Morin smiled. “Co with ; we’re going to find the others.”
Just like that, Morin continued his journey with the first found team mber.
They quickly found the second, then the third…
The team swelled like a snowball.
When Morin found Manstein, who was clutching his rifle and anxiously looking around in a small patch of woods, he already had over a dozen people trailing behind him.
“How do you feel, our operations staff officer?” Morin walked up, smiling.
“Sir!” Manstein was so excited to see Morin that he nearly hugged him like a long-lost relative.
“It was too, too thrilling!” he stamred incoherently. “I almost thought I was going to break my leg when I landed!”
“You’ll get used to it.”
Morin smiled, then pointed to the group of equally excited soldiers behind him.
“See? They are all fine, aren’t they?”
Manstein then noticed the team behind Morin and gaped in surprise.
“Sir, how… how did you manage to find everyone in such a short ti?”
It was a pitch-black landing zone, only dimly illuminated by the moonlight. Even with a map and compass, it would be an almost impossible task to regroup twenty people scattered over a square kiloter in such a short ti.
Morin smiled mysteriously when he heard this, then lowered his voice and spoke in a tone befitting a mystic:
“Because the Holy Kara links every one of us.”
Manstein: “Kara? What is Kara?”
Morin: “A faith, a spirit, a… never mind. I can’t explain it to you. Just know that we will never be separated.”
Manstein nodded, half-understanding, half-baffled.
(End of this Chapter)
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