Total Mobilization (Day 2, Afternoon)

[Core Room]

"Master, an urgent dispatch from Toda. A great host of headless corpses has caused the fall of Hiratsuka. The Daikan and the townsfolk under him are taking refuge at the Nameless Bridge. The corpses are heading this way, so they beg for reinforcements with the utmost haste. According to the Toshima Daikan, the enemy force numbers above ten thousand. Estimated time until they arrive: three hours."

The emergency report reached the Core Room. Hiratsuka was not a castle but merely a magistracy, so "the fall of the castle" was not strictly accurate, but.

"Hiratsuka has fallen? They're dungeon monsters, aren't they. How in the world did they get out of their dungeon?"

"The finer countermeasures we'll think about later. I'm declaring a state of emergency and carrying out a total mobilization. Frontline command goes to Rāja. Send her to the Nameless Bridge with Haruna at top priority. To Kinran, who oversees the southeast sector, I'll entrust every bus we currently have, and put him in charge of transport. Mobilize every vassal who holds a manual-transmission driver's license. Four of the buses are to head to Senba, Mamushi, Kisai, and Noyo to load up the knight orders. The rest will carry the five knight orders of the southeast sector, from Kishi Village to Toda Village, to the Nameless Bridge. If there aren't enough buses, use trucks or whatever else you can find. Also, there should be the rabbits."

"The rabbits?"

"They're survivors of a US-soldier dungeon, so they ought to have the makings of soldiers. A US-soldier dungeon means it's a dungeon derived from the Philippines or Guam, I'd think. There are military attachés stationed in this otherworld's Japan too, but no US soldiers in any organized number."

"I don't suppose all US soldiers are necessarily frontline combat personnel, though."

If anything, it was entirely possible that, just as the Library-City Dungeon had confused a librarian with a shiso, the dungeon in question had confused US soldiers with rabbit-beastfolk.

"That, I'll think about within the three hours. As for an armory in that sector… bring Toda's weaponry into the Nameless Bridge as well."

Since there was no sea, they couldn't ready a prepositioning fleet built around MOBs, the way the otherworld's American military did.

"The Ōi knight order and the Iinuma, Kuki, and Murakami navies, along with the catfish, are to stand by on alert. They won't make it in time given the distances, and there's a chance this is a feint with an invasion coming from another direction. Send half the herons rushing this way; for the leg to the Nameless Bridge, have them go by vehicle. Send the kappa to the dam near Toda. And as a last resort, depending on how things go, I may have to ask Vasanti to manipulate the weather. Have liquor prepared."

Having finished issuing her string of orders, Marie drank some water and took a breath. For the record, unlike a modern nation-state, this was strictly a total mobilization of the knight orders and the like; the farmers were exempt from the call-up.

"Marie-san, three hours puts us into the evening, doesn't it?"

"There's no guarantee zombies rest at night. We get the people of Hiratsuka into the Nameless Bridge before dark. The question is how to handle a pitched battle in the open field. That's the part that has me worried."