Azur Lane: Kaiserin (Book 2)

Ch33: Cathay Expedition

Vanguard's POV:

It's nighttime when our fleet arrives off the coast of Shanghai. The city is now firmly in the Dragon Empery's hands given the evacuation of all the civilians days prior. 

Apart from the other girls, the Empress has chosen to send 1500 of her elite forces with us. I watch as they begin loading themselves onto the small boats moored to our ships for this specific purpose.

Me: Alright, everyone. This is it. Open Fire!

The night sky is suddenly illuminated as all our ships begin opening fire, raining down heavy artillery on the coastal defences which have so far failed to notice us. At the same time, Albion uses her aircraft to provide close air support to our ground forces as they begin their naval invasion.

We quickly overwhelm their meagre defence and with Albion consistently bombing their positions each time they try to form a defensive line, they're soon pushed out of the city.

The minute we succeed in claiming the city, the troops begin work on securing a base for us to use. We initially considered using one of the main government structures but ultimately decided to stick as close to the shore as possible to limit the effect the enemy's artillery might have on our position. Personally, I'd have preferred to go underground but alas this city isn't as developed as Berlin and doesn't have anything even remotely resembling an underground railway station. 

To my surprise, shortly after our victory a fleet from Iron Blood arrived carrying another 50,000 troops. These, as their commander explains, are volunteers who all but begged the Empress to send them to aid the mission and though she initially refused she ultimately gave in and chose 50,000 of the best to send. 

The new objective is not just to make the Empery's army bleed but to destroy it.

Roon smiles at that, especially when she receives a letter authorising her and Deutschland to use whatever means necessary to see the Dragon Empery's logistical network razed to the ground.

Before we can begin any plans, however, one of the soldiers posted on the perimeter of the city radios in that the enemy has gathered a large army and is advancing towards the city. Another confirms that the force seems to be over 300,000 strong.

I hesitate as I ponder what to do but Roon only laughs hysterically before telling everyone to set up in the buildings on either side of the main street and not to fire until she says they should.

Reluctantly, the army complies and soon enough the enemy comes marching into the city. I'm not sure if it is because their commanders are stupid or because they don't know about our reinforcements but they just keep marching towards the sole building at the centre of the city with lights on and Roon standing outside dressed as a guard.

About half their army filters into the city before they reach Roon and attempt to hold her up at gunpoint. The crazed lunatic only smiles, before launching herself at the nearest man and crushing him into a jell-like mush. The others stare at her horrified as she smells the blood on her hand, commenting how fear always adds extra flavour.

At that, our entire army opens fire while Albion bombs the troops clustered outside the city. Thousands die by the second, caught in the crossfire. Hundreds more die in the stampede the panic causes. 

Men beg for mercy as Roon massacres entire battalions at a time. The other girls and I, save for Albion and Deutschland, can only stand by and watch the carnage unfold as the once-clean streets are painted crimson red with rivers of blood.

Roon: Leave not one alive!

As if the troops needed any additional motivation...Only the elites that the Empress sent show any semblance of rational thought. The volunteers? They seem more like Roon, killing just for the sake of killing. Some of them hurl racial slurs towards the men from Dragon Empery. Others even head into the streets where they take great pleasure in stringing up the terrified men and gutting them like animals. Others still create pyres and set men ablaze.

It is utterly chaotic. I'm sure this isn't what the Empress had in mind and I'm certain she sent me with them for the explicit purpose of preventing things from getting too out of hand but if I were to stop them now, there's a chance that the Dragon Empery's forces might overwhelm us as our men adjust to my new orders. We have the element of surprise and terror on our side right now. It's too early to give up both.

The slaughter continues all night long as the Dragon Empery continues throwing more troops into the funnel we created. The idiocy of these people! How ignorant! Even the dumbest commander should have realised it was suicide!

As if hearing my thoughts, a general call is suddenly sounded within their forces for the army to retreat. However, it is much too late as Albion's aircraft prevent any from fleeing the confines of the city while our men form up squads that search every building, killing anything they find that's not one of us. 

By the time, the sun rises, the city stinks of the metallic scent of iron from all the blood. I know it'd be bad to have our people stay here for too long as a breakout of diseases would be all but guaranteed in such a scenario.

Thankfully, a new command arrives from HQ instructing us all to return home now that our mission has been carried out. I question the legitimacy of such a claim, given that we haven't yet attacked their logistic network but I soon find out that while we were fighting, agents were deployed via Paradrop that carried out that portion of our mission for us.

To say I'm stunned is a vast understatement. The Empress...she really thinks about everything, doesn't she?