Chapter 2: Einhemt
The mock battle between Squad E and Squad F had begun about an hour ago. Squad E had captured the base 5 minutes ago with a concentrated push into the center of the town, leaving the flanks of the town totally exposed to Squad F. Noticing this, Minerva ordered a push on both flanks of the town, on the east with the Glory and it's small detachment, and with the remainder of the Squad to the west. The Glory rumbled down the main road of Einhemt almost unopposed, taking only token fire from some of Squad E's units at the end of the road, before it cut a sharp right between two buildings and crashed through a wooden barricade, getting itself in a perfect firing position to contest the base. It's commander, Ronald Albee, ordered the gun to maximum elevation and prepared to fire it's 75mm mortar into the base to clear it when an exasperated radio message from the Glory's support detachment came in that the Hafen had been deployed to the East, against what Minerva was suspecting. This was the worst news. The Glory had no choice but to continue into the central square of the town, lest it take a shot through the radiator once the Hafen caught up. Ronald sighed and ordered the driver ahead full speed. The roaring engine of the Glory was briefly broken by a slight fall over a ledge into the cauldron of fire at the center of the town. An Anti-Tank Lancer of Squad E, Britanny, had been waiting for this moment. At point blank range, she pointed her lance at the Glory and fired, the dummy round slamming directly into the Glory's left side drivewheel.
 Based on the rules of the battle, the tracks were to be considered broken until an engineer could get to the tank. Ronald just now realised that this was what Squad E had wanted all along. The Hafen turned into the gap between the buildings, and using it's superior gun depression, fired a 76mm rubber round directly into the Glory's radiator. That was it for the Glory, Ronald thought. Had that been a real round, they'd all be dead. Ronald raised the white flag over the Glory to signify it out of action.
On the west side of the town, things were going much better for Squad F. In the small backstreets they were engaged in numerous smaller gunfights with members of Squad E. Using the intelligence gathered by her trusted scout, Christel, Minerva knew the exact position of most of Squad E's remaining assets. Just around the building's corner at the base of the intersection, there was two units of Squad E, Lily and Vancey, both deployed in defensive positions. Minerva had set up a move to attack them from both sides at once, from the left and right, making it almost impossible for them to coherently fire back. As she gave the order to attack, the units rushed around the corner, and Minerva was struck. Not by a rubber round, like she had expected, but by a sharp, painful shrill in her head. She couldn't do anything, her body felt frozen. The pain was unbearable as it felt like her brain was being torn out of her skull. She dropped her rifle to the floor and winced. As she closed her eyes in pain, she could hear the faint musings of a voice in her head. It was a voice of a mature woman, but she had no idea who it belonged to or why she was hearing it. She couldn't make out much of the words the voice was saying, it was all broken and jumbled, it sounded more like incoherent babble than actual words. Then, almost as soon as it arrived, it left. Her body felt normal again. She had no clue what had just happened, but she tried not to think too heavily about it. Picking up her rifle, she joined in the offensive, hoping that none of her Squad had noticed her little episode, thankfully, they were too busy carrying out her orders.
 As the left side of the pincer raced around the corner, instinctively Lily turned around and fired off a short burst from her SMG before being hit directly in the back of the head by a round from the right side, and Vancey was too drunk to really fire anywhere competently, spraying rubber rounds all over the place. It was well known that Vancey never really "aimed" at anything, more fired in the general direction and tried to just saturate the area with bullets. As Lily fell over when the round hit her with a distinct, almost comical bonk sound, Vancey was likewise hit by a rubber round from the other side, falling over. Although neither Squad F or Lily could work out if it was because she got hit, or that she was just so drunk she'd lost her footing. As she hit the floor, she begun to slur out some words again, lending credence to the latter rather than the former.
"Wehr ish Rahz...? Cahn't leave a ghirl thu die likh thish... Hic."
Lily merely responded that they were firing rubber rounds, and it would be incredibly unfortunate if anyone would die from that, unless they were cursed. Vancey just rolled around on the floor, drunk as ever. With the perimeter clear, Minerva ordered the Squad to move forward into the central square. By now, they only had about 15 minutes left to capture the base. The remainder of the Glory's detachment in the west was quickly swept up by the Hafen's mortar and machine gun, leaving Minerva's plan for a pincer attack on the base in tatters. Instead, she just decided to rush the base and hoped for the best. It wasn't a fantastic plan, but they were running out of time.
 As members of Squad F appeared from every backstreet on the east side of the busy central square, the distinct and unmistakable crack of the LF Wasp Sniper Rifle could be heard all across the battlefield, as members of Squad F were hit by high velocity dummy rounds advancing. Only about 8 of them managed to huddle up behind the fountain in the very middle of the square, shielding them somewhat from the Sniper fire. Minerva looked up through her goggles as she poked around the fountain to see Kai Schulen, Squad E's best Sniper, positioned perfectly on the top of the clock tower, gripping her rifle in hand, staring down the iron sights, no doubt she had her sights on the cluster of Squad F members.
Minerva was put into a difficult situation, if she ordered a direct assault they'd be prey for Squad E's snipers, but if they simply sat here, the Hafen would catch up from behind and wipe them all out with a mortar round. She held position for a few seconds before a rumble that sounded like thunder roared from behind the buildings. It was the Hafen, it's barrel poking around the corner when suddenly, an absolute hail of mortar rounds hailed down from the sky, splashing down all around Squad F. Minerva was shocked, it was a near perfect move, the loud sounds of Squad E's mortars were perfectly hidden by the sound of the Hafen's engine. Based on the virtual splash range of the mortar rounds, the last remaining members of Squad F were knocked out, marking the end of the mock battle in Squad E's victory. Minerva sighed and begun her walk to the base to congratulate the victor and her rival, Claude Wallace.
 Claude arrived shortly after Minerva did. In honorable fashion, Minerva extended her arm to Claude and they both shook hands. While they appeared on the surface to be good sports, the animosity between them was well known. After sharing the handshake Minerva walked down the central square gazing at the various civilians. They still appeared to be indignant about the occupation, Minerva kept her rifle loaded and ready just in case anything did happen. The town seemed even more ready to rebel than it did just the day before. The Anti-Federation graffiti was getting worse, as evidenced by the sheer amount of it plastered all over the various walls and murals of the town. Knowing an uprising about to happen when she saw one, Minerva took a detour to the Federation's makeshift HQ up in the North of town, a journey that took her about 10 minutes, and gave her all the sights and sounds of the town. When walking up to the HQ, she noticed that several citizens of the town had taken it upon themselves to burn the Federation flag. She thought it was ridiculous, the Federation was democratic and upheld the rights of it's citizens, unlike the Empire. Knocking on the door of the HQ and announcing her presence, she swung open the ornate wooden doors of the HQ to find the Commander of the occupational forces sitting at his desk, paper in hand.
 Minerva took this opportunity to grill the Commander on the fact he'd just sat there with a rebellion just waiting to happen. He said nothing and continued to read his paper. Frustrated, Minerva yelled at the Commander that a rebellion could lead to absolute chaos and knock-on effects to Northern Cross. Finally, it appears he noticed, lowering his paper, taking one look at Minerva before gracing her with a platitude that he'd get on it, and that was that. Even more frustrated than she was when she stepped into the building, Minerva merely sighed and stepped back out of the HQ, getting the impression that the Commander was incompetent. With the sun going down, Minerva thought it high time to return to the camp. Walking back down the streets she'd came up to the HQ on, she kept her rifle even closer to her chest than before, when it happened again. The shrill in her head returned. Like before, it paralyzed her on the spot, like a chill creeping up her spine. She could barely move. Gripping her head and dropping to the floor, her stomach churned as the shrill faded into an almost legible voice.
"West...If...Save...Her..." It said, as Minerva felt her stomach turn over itself once again. Then, just like before, the pain disappeared without a trace. Minerva was confused. Had she gone mad? Instinctively, she grabbed her water bottle and drank from it's ice cold contents without any degree of grace or military conduct. She had no idea what the voice was, where it was coming from and why. With it fading and the pain going away rapidly, Minerva pulled herself up and began her stroll back to the camp once again.
 Her walk was uneventful, but she couldn't argue that she wasn't in the slightest bit afraid. She could tell something was going to happen in the town, and that she could only hope that the occupational forces could handle it. Some 15 minutes later, she passed through the checkpoint back onto the dirt roads leading up to the camp. She stopped for a moment at the crest of a hill to look over the town. In the distance, she could see a long string of defensive fortifications. The Siegval Line. She knew that the operation to take the line from enemy hands would begin shortly, the bloodiest and final battle of Operation Northern Cross. If the Federation could break through here, there was nothing stopping the invasion force from reaching the capital. She had hope. If they broke through here, maybe the war would be over next month. Maybe in a month's time they'd be lifting the Federation's banner over the Imperial Senate building in Schwartzgrad. Maybe that was a pipe dream, but it kept her going.
 Turning around to look at the moon reflected off a small pond by a tree on the hill, she noticed someone. Claude. What was he doing out this late? He should be back at the camp. Of course, if Minerva asked him that, Claude would ask the same of Minerva. For once Claude seemed geniunely perplexed. He was sitting by the bank of the pond, messing around with what appeared to be a small white flower.  Minerva normally wouldn't give this sort of thing any heed, but this time for some reason she also felt introspective. She saundered over to the pond and sat next to Claude.