Another Worldly Summons

Chapter 56: Diminishing Light

At the dawn of the 13th of July, the battlefield was largely expanded at a scale that ASEAN wasn't prepared for. Taking over dozens of colonies with an estimated population of 20 million is quite a task to take with a measly 160,000 men that are rotated on a daily basis to effectively control their now expanded territories.

With their military industrial sectors are producing materials in full swing to support their constant bombardment on the resistance of Parpaldian. Upto 800 bombs are being delivered every 6 hours, and thousands of large caliber munitions are being transported by air and sea, which are commonly seen in large commercial containers to send them in to the frontline. Spare parts for guns, artillery, vehicles, and aircraft are flowing at such a rate that logistics personnel are being troubled about where to put them.

In response to the lack of numbers to effectively control a territory the size of half of Australia, partial mobilization had already been ordered. However, they do not require soldiers to fight on the front lines, but rather to police their newly acquired ones.

Furthermore, the SEADF approved the incorporation of former Hanson rebel armies under their wing, now known as Territorial Defense Groups or simply TDG, is one of the leeway of SEADF to minimize the burden of deploying more troops to garrison their towns and cities under their wing. They aren't officially considered a branch of SEADF but are led by a Southeast Asian officer.

"Form lines! 4th element move at eas—— for fuck sake! You're fucking 6th and 7th aren't 4th elements! You chicken, use your brain and ears properly! Don't fucking follow them like a clueless birdbrain!."

Currently, the SEADF reserve units are doing a short, one-week basic discipline and marching training with the newly formed Territorial Defense Battalions. These barely two-week-old TDGs trainees, as well as those who graduated but immediately returned to boot camp because they were still too green to deploy, are undergoing rigorous tactical and disciplinary training. They are quite good at marching, but terrible at rapid deployment and redeployment or sudden changes of positions, as in the imperial army and rebel army. They only need to follow what's in front of them, so if the front row moves, they will also follow. They also have little to no knowledge about finding good defensive positions if they get ambushed, and are too slow to adapt to unpredictable and complex fluid movements on the battleground, as they are still doing standard Imperial style formation.

Since the surrender of Remille, TDG has currently been expanded to, and now composed of 18 Territorial Defense Battalions, of 400 men each. The SEADF didn't allow any transfer of modern weapons, but the confiscated armaments and transfers from the Doric community are currently their standard equipment. There are about 20 to 30,000 people who tried to join the TDG the moment ASEAN officially announced it would absorb the Hanson rebel army under its jurisdiction, but they only gathered about 8,000 qualified personnel as the majority lacked combat experience, physical qualifications, former criminals, people with shady backgrounds, troublemakers, failed psychological tests, and some more than deemed them unfit for service.

Speaking of which, unfit for service. Originally, only barely 2,000 were accepted due to large instant cuts of criminals, shady people, and people lacking physical qualifications on the list, but a lack of numbers to garrison towns and cities forced the SEADF to make some exceptions by fast tracking the acceptance of applicants. Having 8,000 accepted men and forming a somehow hastily organized battalion within two week is quite a feat. Though the verification of their background is under process, while those former rebels are accepted in TDGs, they will proceed to be removed the moment something fishy is found.

"8th Territorial Defense Battalion! Atten.... Tion!."

The SEADF officer called the attention of one of the current training battalions at the beck and call by their officer. The trainees began looking at him intently.