Operation: Chronos

Prologue:

Spring 1947:

It is almost dawn, yet still they’re awake.  Plans were still being made and they have to move out in the morning. This basement was the second "command post" they had since they came here. There was not much of a house on top of it, really, just some walls and much rubble.  The former occupants are all gone. Hopefully running to the west where there is a camp for refugees. 

A single candle was all the light they had for this stay.  Its glow dancing and making strange shadows on the wall.  On the table they sprawled their only map of the city of Leboux, held in place by stones with the candle at one of its corners.  To his right sat his lieutenant, scribbling measurements based on their calculations.  A good lad, this one.

His regiment was brought in again right after the Zero Division took this forsaken city.  He did not like it one bit as he was originally pulled from the conflict only to be now in charge of cleanup operations against any remaining Axis troops.  He was never the type to lead from behind. So he runs this operation with his men on the field and push through this city sector by sector, taking shelter under any roof that they could find and when possible. They are now on their eighth day of operations and by all accounts, the Axis forces are in retreat and the refugees are evacuated to the west.

He looked at the map again.  It seems that the Axis retreat is running its course through the south east. "If I send my Hammers down south..." he thought, "We will cut them off..."

Movement was suddenly heard from above, the wooden planks of their makeshift command post creaking with motion and the sounds of voices can be vaguely heard.  Boot steps came down the ladder to the basement floor and a voice shouted "Sir!" followed by silence. The man must be standing in salute in the dark.

"At ease soldier. Come over to the light, lad." He said to the newcomer. "I cannot see you there." A young man came out of the dark.  It is his Radioman.  In his left hand was a small folded piece of paper.

"This is for you sir." The radioman offered the piece of paper. "We got it from the wire just now." The radioman seems nervous, what could this be?

He slowly took the paper and unfolded it near the candlelight for a better view. The message was short, but grim. He never expected that  this would happen now, but here it is. The message reads:

Frost,

Faith and Hope are gone.  Operation Chronos is a go. 
He read the message again. Hoping that this was some kind of mistake. But the message remained the same. The two Airbases in the west are both destroyed. The cause of such disaster unknown.  They will have no air assets to bring in reinforcements and supplies anytime soon. 

The second and perhaps most frightening part of the message tasked him to carry out the impossible.  He ran a quick mental inventory of supplies in stock for his regiment and the numbers are just too far apart.  A quick glance at the map shows little dots representing other Allied commands in the city. The Abyss Command is still here, the Basterds are still “loose”, and if he could just send word to the marching Zero Division up north, they will still a chance. He needs to buy some time.

But how could they pull this off? If word reaches the Axis of this, a counterstrike will be certain to come.  And what about the SSU?

"What is it sir?" His lieutenant spoke suddenly. "Is there trouble?"

He looked at his lieutenant and said. "Gentlemen, get ready for a siege. I think we’re in much deeper shit than we think."