Tyranny of Steel

A group of german operators hid within the brush outside the city of Devagiri. Their skin was not the standard pale that was common in the fatherland. Instead, it had been tanned from the excessive heat of the harsh Indian environment. While their golden hair had been stained brown with mud, making them indistinguishable from the local population from a distance.

These men did not dress in military uniforms, but rather in the clothing style commonly found among Indian peasants. The only noticeable difference between them and the natives at first glance was the weapons slung around their shoulders and the load bearing equipment used to house their munitions.

These men were not Jaegers, nor were they Jagdkommandos, for both groups of soldiers wore military uniforms. Instead, these elite warriors were the highest tier operators of the German Army, men who worked side by side with the agents of Imperial Intelligence. These men were the Sturmkommandos. A special forces group designed to conduct clandestine operations deep behind enemy lines.

If, for whatever reason, these elite soldiers were captured alive, the German Empire would deny their existence and abandon them to their fates. For the activities they conducted required total deniability if discovered by the enemy.

The leader of these operators was named Horst Bauer, and the group had been dispatched to the Indian Subcontinent nearly half a year ago to keep an eye on the advance of the Bengal Army. While Horst was doing his job, and gazing through a pair of binoculars onto the unsuspecting army in the distance, the radio operator who was attached to his unit approached him with a stern expression on his face.

"Captain, we've got new orders..."

The special forces officer lowered his binoculars and glared at the man with a stoic face. He simply nodded his head once in silence, signalling for the man to continue.

"The Kaiser wants us to start a humanitarian crisis when the Bengal Army marches on Devagiri, so that the Anangpur Empire has a casus belli to interfere in the conflict before the enemy reaches their borders. High command has left the means by which we achieve this up to our discretion. So, what are we going to do?"

Horst did not immediately respond, and instead gazed in the direction where the Bengal Army marched. He remained silent for several seconds in contemplation before giving voice to his thoughts.

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"Tell me, Sergeant, what is the one thing that is keeping the Bengal Army from committing war crimes?"

The radio operator needed only a moment to dwell upon this question before coming up with an answer.

"That would be Asha's unwillingness to antagonize his backer. So long as the Japanese advisors keep a close eye on him and his troops. Then the Bengal Army won't act up. Wait a second, you can't possibly mean to?"

A wicked grin appeared on Horst's face as he nodded his head thrice before expressing the plan he had come up with to antagonize the Bengal Army.

"The solution to our problem is simple. We ambush the Bengal Army and a eliminate the Japanese Advisors with a coordinated strike. Then we fall back to Devagiri and prepare the city's defenses so that a long and bloody siege occurs.

Without the eyes and ears of Empress Itami, keeping a close watch on her Bengal puppets, they will respond to the bitter losses they suffer in this siege by ravaging the city after they have emerged victorious. Thus, giving the Anangpur Empire the only excuse they need to intervene.

Fritz, I want you to go to the nearest weapons cache and get your hands on a Panzerfaust as well as a few additional rockets. Bring it back here as quickly as possible."

The man named Fritz nodded his head silently with a cold expression on his face, before rushing off into the wilderness by himself with nothing but his Stg-32 in his hands. The Stg-32 was a replica of the Stg-44 from Berengar's past life, and currently saw service among all special operations groups.

However, the weapons in the hands of these sturmkommandos were modified with short barrels, under folding stocks, and an integrated front sight post, and gas block combo. Giving them a distinctive look. The overall compact nature of these weapons made them highly maneuverable in the thick jungle of central India.

Fritz returned before long, with a Panzerfaust on his shoulder, and a rocket-propelled grenade loaded in its barrel, ready for action. Upon seeing this, Horst smiled and nodded his head before letting his soldiers in on the plan he concocted.

"We will ambush the Bengal Army when they pass by our location. They are not far away, and within five minutes will be within engaging distance. Once the Japanese advisors are in sight, we will fire three rockets, one of which will land precisely on those fucking Japs. As for the other two, they will target in front of and behind the Japanese in an attempt to obscure our intent.

After clearing out the Japanese advisors, we will continue to open fire on the enemy for a bit before falling back to Devagiri, where we will take charge of the defense. The Yadava are armed with smoothbore cannons and rifled muskets. With our tactics, they can at the very least kill a few thousand of the Bengals. So get ready, because once the Japanese Advisors are eliminated, the Bengal Army will be unleashed from the chains that bind them."

The Sturmkommandos nodded their heads in agreement with their orders, before taking up over watch positions on a cliff above the main road. They waited patiently for several minutes before the first of the Bengal Troops passed them by.

A massive column consisting of nearly one hundred thousand soldiers proceeded to march through the road, and towards the Yadava capital, when finally in the middle of their ranks the Japanese Advisors were spotted by the German Sturmkommandos. They were close by to Emperor Asha himself, so much so that one might misinterpret the target of their attack upon first inspection. This was an unexpected surprise, but a welcome one.

Fritz knelt down on the hill which overlooked the road, roughly one hundred meters away, and checked to see if the area of his backblast was clear, before pressing the trigger on his panzerfaust, which hurled the rocket-propelled grenade forward where it detonated behind the Bengal Emperor, and the Japanese advisors, in doing so claiming the life of a few dozen Bengal soldiers.

Before the enemy could even react to the sound of the Panzerfaust firing in the distance, the rocket struck their location and exploded on impact. The blast was large, as the Panzerfaust which the German Empire used was modelled after the last design known as the Panzerfaust 250. It was referred to as such, because it was capable of blasting apart 250mm worth of steel armor. Thus, when deployed against soft targets, it was nothing but certain death.

After firing one rocket, the Sturmkommandos fired their assault rifles and machine guns into the general direction of Emperor Asha and his Japanese advisors. All the while Fritz quickly loaded another rocket, and fired it towards the front of where Japanese Advisors hunkered down, who were in the process of reacting to the ongoing combat.

This time the rocket blew up another few dozen men, standing in front of both Emperor Asha and the Japanese Advisors. However, before they could react to this attack, a third rocket fired and precisely struck their targets. Instantly blasting the half dozen or so Japanese advisors into meat paste.

It took several moments for the Bengal Army to return fire, but when they did, they came under the assault of the belt fed Mg-27, which was more commonly referred to as Berengar's BuzzSaw, the weapon sprayed its entire 250 round belt towards the Bengal Army, cutting through their bodies as if they were mere sacks of blood. This devastation was achieved in a matter of seconds.

After ensuring that enough carnage had occurred to mask their intent, the Sturmkommandos packed up their belongings and rushed off towards the distance, leaving behind not even a single shell casing. As their weapons were equipped with a device which caught the spent rounds.

As for the Bengal Emperor, he was cowering on top of his war elephant from the moment he first heard the attack. He dreaded the very idea of popping his head up in case a stray round found its way into his skull.

However, after roughly a minute of combat, the gunfire ceased. Even then, he still did not dare look in the direction where the attack had occurred. It was not until one of his officers approached him and reported what their troops had seen did the man finally come to his senses.

"Your Majesty, the Japanese Advisors are dead, along with several hundred of our soldiers. The enemies who fled the attack appeared to have been locals. I don't know where they got their hands on such hardware, but there was no mistaking it. They were neither German nor Japanese. Shall we send word to Empress Itami and request reinforcements, or better supplies?"

It took several moments for Asha to properly understand what he was told. But when he did, he shook his head before coming to a conclusion based upon a misunderstanding.

"Whoever they were, I'm guessing they were either from the Yadava Dynasty or the Anangpur Empire. Their intention is clear. This was their last breath of resistance, where they wanted to claim my head, hoping that our army would dissolve after my death.

Unfortunately for them, they must be either poorly trained with these weapons, or the weapons themselves were not as precise as our own. For they completely failed to hit their mark, even after three attempts.

You ask where they got their hands on such advanced weapons? There is only one place that comes to mind: the German Empire. However, we need not be afraid. Judging by the scale of their attack, and the fact that the men fled before they could accomplish their objective. It is highly likely that these were the only examples of such weapons they had, and now they are out of ammo.

As for the Japanese Advisors, we are already so close to winning this war, and their presence is no longer required. We can inform Empress Itami of their deaths at a later date. This instead gives us a unique opportunity to act as we please from here on out, without having to worry about that bitch and her frivolous notions of "war crimes". We march on Devagiri at once! Let us teach these bastards a hard lesson about what happens when you poke a sleeping bear!"

The German attack on the Bengal Army had the desired effect. Not only had it invoked a fury in Asha's heart, but as expected, the fool completely failed to properly identify the perpetrators, and what their true objective was. Soon the Bengal Army would descend on the capital of the Yadava Dynasty, and they would bring with them a cruelty that had not been seen in this world since the Bengal conquest of Myanmar.

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