Chapter 324: Surrounded by the Enemy I

Captain Andreas Jaeger rapidly loaded his quick loading tube into his 1419 Jaeger rifle's muzzle. After finishing this task, he affixed his bayonet upon his rifle and prepared for the next wave of attack. He was surrounded and outnumbered while running low on munitions. If something did not change soon, he and his company of elite light infantry would quickly be defeated.

Recently he and his company of Jaegers had been deployed to the front lines to hunt down and destroy the various Italian skirmishers that had popped up on the field of battle. With the superior range and camouflaged equipment, these brave men had led the charge in the ongoing campaign against Austria's enemies within Northern Italy.

The Jaeger Corps had taken up the role of the Royal Austrian Army's premier light infantry as they advanced beyond their main force and hunted down all potential obstacles on their journey. After discovering the locations of the Italian Skirmishers by sheer coincidence, they had begun an extensive campaign to clear the path towards the city of Milan.

Unfortunately, the Italians realized their information was leaked after the Jaeger Corp several minor skirmishes between the Italian ambushers and the Austrian Jaegers. Because of this, the Italians had responded by successfully encircling Andreas' Company while forcing them into defending their position within a small village against a couple of thousand Italian soldiers.

At the moment, the Austrian Jaegers were holed up inside an agricultural village that lies within the vicinity of Milan. During their brief period of respite, they had used their time wisely gathering whatever resources they could find within the town to create a makeshift barricade in an attempt to funnel the Italian Soldiers into their line of fire.

As Andreas finished loading his Jaeger Rifle, he popped his head out from behind cover, aimed down its sights at the charging Italian Horde, and fired his projectile straight into the torso of one of the Italian men at arms.

The hexagonal bullet pierced through the man's breastplate as if it were made of butter before blowing out his insides. Blood flew into the air. However, Andreas did not enjoy the sight. Instead, he ducked behind cover once more and rapidly began to reload his weapon.

While this was going on, all of his men were using a similar strategy. However, in between shots, arrows would rain down upon Andreas, and his forces, one of these arrows fell upon Andreas' camouflaged steel helmet, getting stuck within the netting and faux foliage contained within.

Luckily for him and his men, their armor was vastly superior to the primitive weapons used by the Italians, and they could easily resist the attacks; with this in mind, Andreas finished loading his rifle before aiming down its sights at the next attacker.

The moment he pulled the trigger, the hammer of his action fell, and the flint sparked the gunpowder propelling the hexagonal bullet downrange and into the torso of the man who was no more than five meters away.

After doing so, Andreas did not load his rifle and instead prepared himself for the enemy charge. Before long, the soldiers under his command had also prepared their bayonets and thrust them towards the oncoming Italian soldiers, piercing through their mail and gambeson armor and into their vital organs.

The Italians were funneled into the gaps between the makeshift barricades, a few men at a time while facing the bayonets of a dozen or more Austrian. After well over a hundred Italian soldiers, the wall began to break apart, and Andreas was forced to retreat. As such, he gave the command to his soldiers while gritting his teeth in defeat.

"Fall back to the secondary line!"

With this said, his soldiers who were still standing against the onslaught abandoned the first barricade, where they advanced back towards the second line of defense constructed within the village. As Andreas and his soldiers crossed back to the secondary objective, the defenders behind it opened fire upon the rampaging Italians, where the Austrian Jaegers quickly began to reload their rifles and fire a second volley.

Andreas seriously wished at this moment that he had a Schmidt gun nearby to help deal with the massive numbers they were fighting against. They were too far ahead of the main army to gain support, and the closest units nearby were other Jaeger companies who were most likely unaware of their ongoing predicament.

As his men were firing upon the nearby enemies, he noticed that one of his soldiers was carrying a pouch filled with several grenades, the moment Andreas saw this, he ran over and questioned the man.

"Where the hell did you get these? We're not grenadiers!"

The soldier was so focused on fighting the battle that he forgot he was carrying grenades with him, as such a wide grin appeared on his face as he took ahold of one of the primitive steel grenades and lit its fuse before tossing it into the Italian mob. As it exploded, the device sent shrapnel in all directions, claiming the lives of the nearby Italian soldiers. When the soldier saw this, he began to cheer before answering Andreas' question.

"I had forgotten I had these little bastards! I won them in a card game with some grenadiers; I suppose we're just lucky that high command hasn't begun to crack down on inter-unit gambling yet!"

As he said this, the soldier began to distribute the grenades to the nearby Austrian Jaegers, who lit them and tossed them into the fray, blasting the Italian army apart, causing massive casualties to the enemy forces. After the vanguard of the Italian ranks was utterly decimated by volley fire and the grenades, the remaining Italian soldiers fled from the village and back into the field where their commander was gathered.

Andreas sighed in relief; the Austrians had successfully defended against another wave, but how much longer they could hold out was another question entirely. As such, he quickly gave his orders to the men gathered beside him in the village.

"Rebuild the front line! Attend to the wounded and prepare for the next wave; all we can do is wait and hope for reinforcements to arrive!"

Though Andreas severely doubted that aid would arrive. This was already the third wave of attack that they had repelled, and there was no sign of reinforcements on the horizon. They had no way to signal back to the main camp, and enemies had surrounded them on all sides. Things were looking grim for the Captain and his company of Jaegers.

Before long, the Austrian soldiers had refortified their position; there would be no grenades for this next wave, and they had no artillery support. Many of the men were beginning to run low on munitions; as such, they would not easily defend their position.

Andreas waited, with his rifle loaded, and flintlock action cocked back; before long, the next wave showed themselves, so he gave his troops the command to open fire.

"Fire at will!"

With this said, Andreas squeezed the trigger of his Jaeger Rifle and sent the hexagonal bullet down range and into the torso of the enemy soldier; in doing so, the man dropped to the ground struggling on his last breath.

After this volley was fired, Andreas and his soldiers quickly reloaded their rifles before firing another round of shots down range and into the crowd of Italians. While Andreas was preparing his next load, a crossbow bolt flew past him and into the eye socket of the soldier behind him, killing him instantly.

Andreas did not have time to lament the soldier's death. Instead, he finished loading his weapon before aiming his rifle and firing another shot at the enemy formation. Bullets were sent downrange, and arrows were returned upon his position, pelting his soldiers with the projectiles.

Some died, some were wounded, and others were entirely unscathed by the grace of God. It did not take long for the Italian soldiers to arrive at the barricade, where they struggled to break through; a few men at a time were able to squeeze through the gap where the Austrian Jaegers pierced through their armor's weak points with their triangular bayonets, inflicting death on the men unfortunate enough to break through their defenses.

Some of the Austrian Jagers had resorted to sharpening their spades and began using them as blunt instruments as they cracked the Italian soldiers over their steel helmets, causing concussions and even death to occur among their ranks.

The battle was bloody, and both sides suffered losses as the Italians struggled to seize the ground where the Jaegers had occupied; if they could not get rid of these Ghosts, their army would suffer throughout this entire war. The thousands of Italians that were present threw everything they had at the Jaegers' makeshift defenses.

However, in the end, by sheer force of will, they were repelled once more, falling back to their encampment. The night was beginning to fall upon the land, and with it, the sounds of gunshots and death throes came to a halt.

Andreas did not know what the Italians had planned for the next assault, but if things continued as they had until now, defeat was inevitable, and that was something he was unwilling to allow. The Austrian Captain would have to come up with an innovative idea if he wanted to defeat the Italians who had encircled the lightly fortified village.