The War for Borneo Continues
The War for Borneo Continues
Still, the ground she gained was no meagre amount. Many of the Majapahit fortifications within the Northern portion of the island had been completely seized by the Imperial Japanese Army, and yet the gains she had made were met with new difficulties.
In a shocking display of events, the anti-aircraft guns that the Japanese bombers had eliminated were quickly replaced, and once more Itami's planes were denied air superiority. Without the ability to safely launch reconnaissance aircraft in the skies above Borneo, it was anyone's guess at just how the Majapahit had been preparing their defenses.
As if things couldn't get any worse, Itami was, of course, met with more bad news, as was spoken by an agent of Japanese Intelligence, who had a nervous expression on his chiseled face as he summarized the reports in his hands.
"As a result of our conquest of the Northern Philippines, the Ming Emperor has officially condemned us, and cut off all trade as well as any diplomatic ties. Our merchants in China have been expelled, and we have lost contact with our intelligence agents in the area.
If that wasn't bad enough, Every Japanese citizen currently located within the Majapahit empire has been arrested and detained under suspicion of espionage and sabotage. Furthermore, we have received letters of condemnation from every major power that has signed the Vienna Accords.
In other news the German navy has secured the waters leading to Java and Sumatra, claiming they are protecting their trade routes to China and access to their colonies in the south. This means that attacking the Majapahit capital to end this war quickly will not be possible without going through them. So far, they have shown no direct aggression, but they are preventing us from attacking the supply lines which they are providing for the Borneo defenders.
This is actually how the anti-aircraft guns which we have destroyed were so quickly replaced. It would appear the Germans either have a bunch of these weapons lying around, or have an industrial capacity that we have sorely underestimated."
Itami could only sigh in defeat. Even though the Germans were supplying her enemies, there was no way she would dare to give the order to attack German shipping. That would be counter productive. The entire reason she had invaded Borneo was to get her hands on aluminum which was required for more advanced aircraft.
If the Germans were to become directly involved in this conflict, then it was truly only a matter of time before her forces were thoroughly defeated. The Japanese Empress had to think carefully about how she would move forward with her plans. If she made one wrong move, she would have to face the full fury of the reich.
Itami sat in silence for several moments before dismissing the Intelligence Agent. Where she began to concoct the next phase of her offensive.
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While Itami was sitting back in her palace coordinating the war effort in Borneo, the Majapahit defenders were doing everything they could to hold the line. After years of listening to German propaganda against the Japanese, few men were willing to surrender willingly, and most units had fought to utter annihilating in the face of the Japanese advance.
In the jungles of Borneo, a few camouflage men rushed through the woods with their weapons in hand. Suddenly the Sergeant of this squad raised his arm and immediately the unit halted in their tracks. They could hear the engines of the Type 4 medium tanks roaring in the distance, and thus the men slung their rifles over their shoulders, and replaced them with a peculiar weapon.
Not only had the Germans been selling the Royal Majapahit Army dedicated anti-tank guns to be used in their trenches against the enemy armor, but they had also been selling Panzerfausts to the Majapahit Empire. Each man in this guerilla squad was equipped with one of these weapons, and thus they hid in the foliage, waiting for the enemy armor to reveal itself.
Among these Majapahit guerillas was a boy no older than sixteen. He loaded his Panzerfaust two fifty and ensured it was ready to fire while aiming down its sights onto the dirt road in front of him. Soon enough, the tanks and APCs began to roll buy, where the sergeant of the squad gave the order to attack.
With the pull of a trigger, a series of rocket-propelled grenades flew through the woods before exploding against the enemy's armored vehicles. The damage was devastating, as the type 4 tanks in the front and rear of the formation were rendered inoperable. This forced the Japanese soldiers to bail from their APCs only to be welcomed by machine gun fire.
Among these Majapahit guerillas was a man with an Mg27(t) light machine gun, who immediately began to spray lead into the Japanese ranks. Blood burst forth from the torsos as multiple bullets found their way into the bodies of the Japanese soldiers.
Though they desperately tried to return fire, the Japanese were perfectly caught in an ambush, and those who left the safety of their vehicles were quickly slaughtered. As for those who did not dare to present themselves, they were unfortunate enough to die where they sat. As the Majapahit guerillas opened up the hatches to the armored vehicles and tossed stick grenades inside, which killed any living being contained within.
It would be some time before the Japanese realized that this armored column was annihilated, and by the time they did, the guerillas who had taken it out would be long gone. The Majapahit guerillas looted whatever weapons and munitions they found useful from the corpses of the slain before hauling ass back to camp.
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As if the war in Borneo was not already difficult enough for the Imperial Japanese Army, Berengar had planned to gift his adversaries with a certain present, one that was most deadly. Standing inside a bio-weapons lab, Berengar spoke with one of his head scientists in the department who had invented something particularly nasty.
The scientist was rather young, no older than Berengar himself. He had a golden head of hair and distinctive green eyes. He was, of course, leading Berengar through his department's many experiments, where they eventually came across a large tank filled with particularly nasty little insects.
It took an extra careful observation for Berengar to see what these nasty little buggers were, and upon closer expectation, he voiced his disbelief allowed.
"Fleas?"
The scientist smiled and nodded his head with satisfaction as he informed Berengar of just what he and his team had created.
"Not just any fleas, my kaiser. These are fleas that are carrying a particularly deadly strain of cholera. Harmless to our own people, after all, we have more than enough anti-biotics to cure such a disease. But to the Imperial Japanese Army?
Oh, they'll be puking and shitting themselves to death in the trenches. Forget about the casualties inflicted via machine guns and artillery. I estimate that as well as 90% of the Japanese forces in Borneo will become deathly ill once we have unleashed these little critters into the area!"
It was rather astonishing how far his scientists had come over the years. Berengar had no qualms about unleashing chemical weapons onto his foes, but biological weapons, that was a two headed sword which he had reservations about. When unleashing a disease onto a population, one had to be extra careful that their own populace remained unaffected.
However, a cure for cholera was already invented long ago when anti-biotics were introduced to German society. While the Japanese Empire had been able to kick-start a weapons industry that was at a near peer level of the Reich, at least in terms of technology. They were severely lacking in other fields, especially medicine.
Complex antibiotics were something the Japanese were not capable of manufacturing. Thus, Berengar was sure that an outbreak of cholera in Borneo would indeed cause massive casualties among the Japanese forces stationed there.
With a rather sadistic grin on his otherwise handsome face, Berengar nodded his head in approval of his Bio-weapons department's most recent invention, and was quick to ask how long it would be before they could be deployed to the battlefield.
"So, how long until you can get these flees into Borneo?"
The scientist simply smirked with a grin full of confidence on his face before raising two of his fingers.
"Give me two weeks, and I can have enough of these little buggers loaded on a plane that will be capable of devastating the entire island's population! As for our Majapahit allies, we can always sell them the antibiotics required to cure their cholera problem.
Even if the Japanese were intelligent enough to understand the complexities of what we have achieved, they will have no evidence to accuse us of any wrongdoing. Thus, I can say with certainty that with your approval, we will be able to test how efficient biological warfare truly is."
Berengar smiled when he heard this and nodded his head in approval once more before voicing his support of the operation.
"Where do I sign?"
With that said, the German Empire was about to introduce another weapon of mass destruction into this world. The complex and dangerous nature of biological warfare was about to hit the island of Borneo, something which the Imperial Japanese Army would have no counter for.
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