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To begin with, this first strike was going to be an attempt by the Union to maintain their initiative in the offensive. The advance had been paused for some time now, but as both sides had been licking their wounds, the Sovereignty had chosen to be diverted elsewhere. Yes, towards First Company’s ongoing fuckup, but also in other places to try and draw the Union’s troops away from the Gallery. The Harzwohlkan Union Army Command had decided that this represented an opportunity to buckle the Sovereignty’s battle line, and had hastily brought up reinforcements and what new equipment could be hurried out to make a quick assault and catch the enemy off guard. While First Company would have been desired here rather than off doing their own thing, the Union accepted that initiating with six hundred veteran fighters rather than eight hundred fifty was a tolerable alternative to delaying the start of the attack.
The Aurora Legion was being deployed to the central axis of this surprise offensive, an operation to seize a hilltop farm town and railway fork. Its position of overwatch on the surrounding terrain, as well as being an easy to fortify strongpoint to launch further attacks off of, was plenty reason to take it even without the consideration of it being on a route of supply. Since this attack was to be launched without warning, civilians were expected- the denizens of the Gallery did not wish to leave, as an unexpectedly bumper harvesting season for cave fungus crops was anticipated. The other reason for the necessity of rapid assault- to cut the Sovereignty off from as much of their main food supply as possible, slicing into the Gallery at the worst time for them.
Any citizenry encountered was to be captured, and they as well as any surrendered troops were to specifically be sent back. The former could not be trusted to not be reactionary sympathizers, and the latter was far more important to the Union than they could be to the <span class="mu-i">help</span>. That instruction was solely to the Legion, apparently. So be it, but Schwarzehand knew his old boss wouldn’t so willing to comply with that. In battles as large as this, singular prisoners were simple to <span class="mu-i">misplace</span>. As for the civilians…Schwarzehand had gotten fed up with the sort of thing he knew would happen all the way back in the Emrean Revolution.
