Eodem: A Rifle and Sword Adventure (Complete)

Chapter 50: Climb Mount Denali (Part 2)

Major Benjamin Holyfield, codenamed: Spearhead obsessively downed his fifth round of Arabica as the clock struck 6am. He had foregone sleep the night before, instead meticulously reviewing every bit of detail of his area of responsibility of Operation Haymaker with concordance with the elements consisting of West Army Group for this Military Offensive. He had familiarized himself deeply with the capabilities of his Marines, his Armored Units, his Assault Carrier's Aerial Wing, his Engineers and the Infantry in addition to the help of the Native Auxiliaries and so-called Partisans under his command. They reciprocally know what the Major, in all of his many years of Battlefield Wisdom would tell them to do:

Breakthrough in all of the UFEAF's roaring might.

For the Prize beyond Marnia's Bluff or more geographically correct saying Marnia's Isthmus (as his Recce would debate) is a direct road leading straight into the capital of the Empire, Haringpoint herself in all of her Imperial majesties. The terrain as his scouts and intel would suggest would be rough with swampy sands, jagged rocks and many places of significant elevation the Empire would use to their advantage to repeat the same fate 'the Battle of Marnia's Bluff' of old fell upon Alboen and his heavily armored vanguard. Studying what little history he could of his predecessor's mistakes. From what Holyfield had gathered, the previous Battle was a case of overconfidence getting the better of the old Demon Lord as his previous victories were won through sheer superior strength in open scraps rather than through cunning acumen. Still, he did have the same rational why he would walk through the trouble passing over the Isthmus in the first place and that was the shortcut to Haringpoint. He did not expect his men to be bogged down so easily by the swampy and rough terrain the area was known for. Caldell Slaegiac, the Empire's founder used it to his much lighter footed Warbands, Longbowmen and Mages to wash out the bogged down Demon Army into dust, defeating Alboen and gaining total victory for the First Alliance of the Light.

Reading back the details, Major Holyfield now knows what to do, in order to turn his disadvantage around.

For a start, the task of getting his men and their Mechanized Elements that they need to break through the hunkered down defenses in Marnia's Bluff will need to have the terrain's slowing effects be as mitigated as far as possible. Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges, Constructor Drones, chopped wood, some Alteration Magicks from the Goblin Shaman Ho'don and sheer ingenuity should suffice. But there is some terrain where Infantry would be force to get their feet to up to their thigh's wet thick with swamp and sand-water. This will leave them vulnerable to enemy ambushes and traps but even then, Holyfield has calculated his answer to those. He had deployed several Reconnaissance teams hidden out of or within Enemy sight that records all possible ambush points the Empire's troops were planning or constructing to create. With their info, Holyfield and his Marines would know where to avoid passing over the Isthmus or if they must pass over, send in an Airstrike or a Sapper Squad to neutralize the enemy defenses. His advisors suggested that they eliminate the Traps as soon as they know its there but Holyfield argued that if they do that, the Empire will just make a new trap somewhere else or find a means to adapt to their countermeasures in which they will have to restart their planning efforts all over again. The Major simply could not afford to have his enemies learn he and his men methods by observing his actions, preferring to decapitate them before they realize what had happened. He had given all of his men strict orders to retain the masquerade of the UFEAF's impending assault for Operation Haymaker by not engaging the Enemy forces unless they scout out too far ahead over the Northern Hills of Souviel.

The Major himself was quite flabbergasted to say the least of how Prince Clovich, who he still retains his scrupulous stipulations about having him and a Three Regiments worth of Tyr Rianni modernized Riffelwyrs of the newly formed Laniyea Army, managed to secure Souviel (formally Speaking under the wing of the Federation and Clovich's Tyr Rianni Amelioration).