39. Artillery Bombardment

Artillery Bombardment

Heavily guarded artillery positions had been established twenty-five kilometers from the city.

Previous encounters with enemy ground forces, along with intelligence on their patrol patterns, indicated that their infantry could maintain speeds above thirty kilometers per hour for long periods and sprint up to forty kilometers per hour for short bursts. It was therefore necessary to guard against possible attacks by enemy strike teams or airborne units.

The standard doctrine for operating self-propelled artillery in pairs in the field required readiness to stop firing or begin moving within thirty seconds, but that would not be enough in the event of sudden close-range assault.

At the same time, each of the ten artillery positions was placed five kilometers from the others, in the hope that unless the enemy split its forces, it would be impossible to launch a large-scale attack on all positions at once. If the enemy did divide its strength, it could be defeated piece by piece by more mobile, faster vehicles and armed helicopters.

Finally, each artillery position was designed with rapid evacuation in mind. In an emergency or under the threat of overwhelming ground attack, troops and vehicles could be on the road within sixty seconds.

Within those artillery positions were ninety-two self-propelled guns transported from the Northern Theater Command, some by airlift, others driven in over the past week.

These 155-millimeter self-propelled howitzers represented a large share of the nation’s total medium-range artillery capability, and nearly everything that could be mobilized in a relatively short period of time.

Recent modernization allowed them to fire six rounds per minute at targets up to forty kilometers away, delivering a forty-five-pound warhead within twelve meters of designated coordinates.

Reconnaissance drones over the area transmitted real-time targeting data, which computers and technicians at the fire direction center adjusted before sending firing solutions.

The ninety-two guns opened fire almost simultaneously. Every ten seconds, they fired a number of shells equal to five percent of the unit’s total historical expenditure.

The shells traveled at more than twice the speed of sound. By the time the first shell struck its target, more than five hundred others were already in the air.

As with all army-level magical warfare, Mavis doctrine was built around thematic divination magic.

Most thematic magic could generate information within its own domain without needing to actually gather it through divination or perception spells.

Fire mages understood and could predict every form of heat and flame. Weather mages could sense disturbances in the air, even a single sound or breath, or the obstruction an invisible opponent caused in the flow of air. Light mages could view present and future situations from different perspectives.

Founded on violence and raw force, Mavis divination magic was, in war, both simpler and more subtle.

With the anti-divination measures failing, Legion Commander Mott stood deep within his unfinished fortress, discarded his senses of the mundane world, and took in the reality of war.

He no longer needed to contact his troops individually, or even in groups.

As tools of violence and power forged under his authority, they were merely extensions of himself.

He did not need to scout the enemy, because the enemy was simply another source of violence directed against him, and therefore another path through which his awareness could expand.

He could even see individual actions related to threat and violence. The greater the potential threat, the earlier he learned its source and received warning.

In a sense, this was a vastly improved version of the simple danger-sensing magic he had cast as a novice one hundred and thirty years ago.

So when the enemy’s hostile intent crystallized into orders for a specific application of violence, he foresaw the artillery…