Outskirts of the Braystead urban center
December 23rd, 1890 - 7:23 AM
After a slow bypass of the small town known as Hamberden, the Xecuiian soldiers had reached Braystead. Sakurai slowly leaped out from his escorting gun tractor and looked forward into the town as with the rest of his comrades. Their faces were stoic and apathetic, their last encounter was merely a scuffle with one soldier injured by mere bullet grazes to the thigh. As he looked to his left, Sakurai saw forces of gun-tractors and infantry heading straight to the sides in which he realized that the entire force was split into 3 units, the 10,000 man spearhead going straight forward, and the other 10,000 (split in half) as flanking forces on each side maneuvering past the city, trying to bypass it and engage directly from behind the front lines. A group of soldiers directly from the 'tip' of the spearhead ran past Sakurai in a frenzy, going back to support others in setting up a wireless telegraph station to communicate to the Regiment's headquarters, which was approximately 3 kilometers behind the front. A kommandant from the spearhead tip shouted back to other officers including Sakurai; to have their bayonets and armaments ready in case any resistance were to come upon them. Sakurai looked at his subordinates and gave the signal, they all reached to a side sheath which held their bayonets, lowering onto the rifle latch until they heard the locking 'click'. Some decided to tie the flag onto it as well, a sure sign of the loyalty to the nation. Within 17 minutes (7:40 or so), the taller town buildings,sidewalks, and roads could be more distinctively recognized rather than the sand and dirt paths leading up from the outskirts. Only 2 minutes passed from this when an officer suddenly pointed a distinctive looking large diameter barreled rifle into the air and fired it. A large, slow moving, and visible canister came out and unleashed a torrent of smoke and steam. At that point, Sakurai followed his orders and had his men follow him up and climb a walkway which would lead them past the smoke and move to the backyards and such of homes and commercial buildings as a means of bypassing heavily guarded fortifications which the spearhead would take on. As he went to help comrades climb the wall to the walkway, he noticed the ironic sight of a field soup kitchen, waiting for the soldiers to find refugees and bring them back to feed them. Shaking his head at the irony, he lifted soldiers up and proceeded to make way into the city alongside his comrades.
