Fire Emblem the Self Insert Number A bajillion

by longherin

Nerdboy falls into Fire Emblem. Nerdboy uses SCIENCE (dubiously) to solve problems. And when I say Science, I mean the kind that invariably happen when you give magic to someone who watches anime. Takes small elements across all of Fire Emblem universe.

34. Valm Campaign - Steiger City Battle

{ === + === }

…

[Day Before The Attack]

[1st Person Camera]

…

The march took us ten days.

I liked the fact that we were able to move unopposed, but it really puts me on edge.

"Tell me about it." Robin had said sometime during the march. "I expected at least some opposition."

"May I ask why?" Said Fredrick.

"Well…it's not as if spying is a recent invention, nevermind how we took over a Valmese city." Was Robin's reply.

…So…yeah. We're a touch on edge even while setting up our final camp.

Speaking of camps.

Our war camp is separated into two sections. The front section is established within a fairly light forest close to the city, and the back section is…well, further back.

The front section houses the standard troops for their attack. The back section acts as an airstrip for the Phoenix squadron. It also houses all our ammunition and support staff.

And Chrom?

Their party will break off and head for the fortress before we start our operation.

Per Robin's suggestion, we're letting the troops rest for two days after we establish camp. While this completely obliterates any surprise attacks we could have set up…

"Set up additional campfires." Robin orders. "It's far too optimistic to believe that the city is entirely unaware of our approach, Ash."

Well, yeah, sure, but… "If they had that kind of information, wouldn't they also know of our troop numbers?"

"Troop numbers are a fickle thing, Ash." Robin smiles. "Especially when our ranks have been increasing as we marched…well, Say'ri's ranks, anyways."

Which is true…going by the tally earlier today, the troop count has almost doubled. Mostly land forces, and even then mostly light ground troops like Myrmidons and Mercenaries, but the numbers definitely help…man, I'm making it sound like we just randomly got people. Our troop count doubled because only a third of the rebels Say'ri sent envoys to responded in time, so in that sense we have less manpower than expected.

Reason why we're bringing up the troop type is because the Valm's garrisoning force is primarily Armored Knights and Fighters, with Archers on the walls.

Given the size of the city they probably have units of every class in there, but they just have shittons of armor. Armor's tough to break down when the vast majority of the army are NPC quality troops.

"You're the boss." I shrug. "I imagine the extra fires will help prop up morale, too."

"You're learning." Robin laughs. "It's about time, too."

…

So. In terms of positioning, our army is northwest of the city, which puts us somewhat between the City and the Fortress. Robin's plan of spoofing our numbers and removing the element of surprise is to lure out the defenders from the Fortress (which is the original target to begin with). In the event that the enemy responds, the main army (us) will engage the troops of Steiger out in the open while the Shepherds strike at the Fortress itself.

We're relying on the garrison being too slow to respond, which feels like a bit of a stupid wish, but eh.

Robin's relying on the Blackbirds providing tactical information before the garrison could move into a striking position just in case they try to outmaneuver us.

Steiger Fortress itself doesn't have a sizeable force when compared with the bulk of what we have, so we can definitely mop up before the City can respond properly.

In the event that the Fortress doesn't take the bait, we'll just assault from the Western gate like normal and go from there.

I hope they fall for the fakeout, because I'm not looking forward to the city assault.

…

"Yo." Robin pats my shoulder. "How are things?"

We're standing on a small hill observing the city.

The city's huge and walled, but the problem is the fact that the city is surrounded by a deep slummy ring of poor houses that makes assaulting it from anywhere other than the main gates impossible. Ugh…at least the people in the slums are going to be not-friendly towards Valm, I suppose.

"Doesn't look like they fell for the bluff; the city's going into lockdown." I reply. "Robin, if you made my life harder I swear to god."

She just chuckles. "You're a big boy. You can handle it."

"Sometimes I wonder." I shake my head. "How are things on your end?"

"Good. I think I have far more power than I actually need, though." She says with a sigh. "It's surprisingly hard, integrating Cynthia and the others into the Shepherds."

…Really?

She nods upon seeing my face. "Yeah…they're just too good."

"That's…a very odd problem to have." For the record, I'm diverting all of the future children assets (except Nah and Morgan) to Chrom's force, since there's a greater chance of things screwing with their plan and thus they could use the extra hands.

Robin fiddles with her hair. "Take Severa…or Luna, or whatever her name is. She's so aggressive it's hard to know what she's planning."

…I feel like they didn't have these kinds of control problems before.

"Cynthia loves grandstanding too much and loses track of her surroundings too quickly." Robin continues. "Yarne disappears from time and time and I can't give him orders, Brady will follow orders but only if he's within distance of Maribelle, Gerome sticks to Cherche and I can't peel him off…" She finishes her statement with a loud groan. "Why do they respect you and not me?"

"Erm."

"Don't mind me, I'm just venting." Robin huffs. "They're good kids…very skilled, very sharp, but obviously not used to working in as a medium-sized squad." She ponders on that for a moment. "Actually, it feels like they're most used to either working as individuals or as a single, cohesive unit." She says at last. "Their response times and patterns make me think that there're some other kids we haven't found yet."

I…hm. "Well, you're not wrong." I shrug. "I have to admit I never noticed those quirks myself."

"That's because you never had them fight as a unit, I think." Robin points out. "Some of them tend to work well with each other, but they don't have the flexibility of a Shepherd, oddly enough."

…Huh, you'd think that being brought up in a world where the threat of being mauled to death is ever present would've turned them all into jacks of all trades…or maybe it's because Lucina's the undisputed leader and she's not currently present?

Or maybe she's just commenting on how they have no support conversations with anyone but other future children and their parents.

"Oh well." Robin sighs again. "They're all good no matter what happens, so I shouldn't be too worried about what's going on. We'll be moving out this afternoon, by the way."

As planned. "Yeah." I raise my hand. "Be good…and stay safe out there."

Robin glances at my hand. "Who do you think I am?" She smirks.

High five!

…

[Steiger City, Garrison Commander's Office]

…

The Valmese head of garrison (henceforth referred to as Commander) looked at the papers in front of him. "These are all accurate, correct?"

The aide who delivered the paper nodded. "Up to their time of departure from their city, yes sir."

So those fires are decoys. The Commander thought. "And the head of the enemy is…"

"I have conflicting reports, sir." The aide said nervously. "Um…"

"Speak. I am not the last man." The Commander laughs. "I cannot fight if my men tell me falsehood."

"Yes sir." The aide cracks a small smile. "The reports either state Princess Say'ri or the Lord of the Coasts to be the General of the Army."

The Commander's eyebrow went up at that. "Is that certain?"

The aide nods.

The Lord of the Coasts…the Commander thought it over. If it was just Princess Say'ri, then we would be in a favorable position. Her tactics and strategies tended to favor small skirmishes even before the war began…I don't think she had any experience with larger armies to begin with.

He smiles a little. Her pride is what made Yen'fay join us as a desperate measure, after all. Were it just her… his smile fades. Were it just her, we could end her rebellion right here.

"Just to be sure." The Commander says slowly. "We're talking about THE Lord of the Coast, right?"

"The Feroxi, yes sir." The aide nods. "The same one responsible for orchestrating the raids within our sphere of influence."

It's the real deal. The Commander could feel a cold chill down his spine. If the rumors are to be believed, then it's the same man that broke past Ignatius's navy with just four warships…the same one who overwhelmingly struck our ground forces time and time again, the same one who, even when cornered, rescued his entire force from our ambush while dealing a horrific counterattack.

"Um…sir, if I may." The aide said softly. The Commander nods for him to continue. "I…don't know what I should trust, but if…I would like to rejoin my family for the next few days."

The Commander raises an eyebrow.

"If the Lord of the Coast's reputation is true, then…well, I would like to get my family out of this place while we still can." The aide finished with a downcast glance.

The slums around Steiger city was a development that occurred after the war began, as such, most of its residents are war refugees. People who suffered due to the war and the people who are currently causing suffering in the war tend to make for bad neighbors, wall notwithstanding.

That's right…the city already has its own problems. A siege will only make it worse. The Commander realized. "I understand…do what you must." A battle like this will have collateral damage. Perhaps I can evacuate the civilians through the eastern gate? The Commander sifts through the small stack of paper he has. However, against the Lord of the Coasts, I need to use everything I have…

He sits down to plan. First, I need to nullify his control of the skies…

…

[Morning of the Operation]

…

Valm, having had warning of a reasonably sizable force moving from all around Steiger City, was more than prepared for the oncoming attack. A little too prepared, as it turned out.

"And here I thought they would have gathered a bigger army." A Sniper captain manning the walls smirked upon seeing the rebel lineup out in the field. "Keep your arrows near and your eyes sharp! We'll have this done before the day's up."

"Knowing how those guys fight? We might be on the back foot here." Her lieutenant warns. "Actually, we will be on the back foot here. Spotters, keep your eyes on the sky. Shout if you see even a bird fly strangely." She received a few acknowledgements for that.

"So what's the commander doing?" The captain asks, peering at the slowly advancing ranks of enemy troops.

The lieutenant glances at the gate they were tasked to protect. "He's sending out cavalry. They're going to hit the enemy lines first."

"I expected as much." The captain smirks. "Alright, let's get ready as well. All mages ready!"

…

"Blackbird One to Genbu, enemy mages are moving, expect incoming fire."

Say'ri wasn't exactly used to that callsign. "This is Genbu, I understand." She and her Swordmaster bodyguards stopped short. "It looks like the enemy is preparing to strike with their cavalry elements."

"Blackbird Two here, we see them…Two to all air units, report status."

"This is Suzaku." Rafale One reports. "All units are ready for battle. The sky's clear…it doesn't look like they're going to dance with us right off the bat."

"This is Seiryu." The leader of the rebellion's air element reports (much less confidently). "Not a peep up here. Maybe they got scared?"

"Keep your eyes open, girls." Ash chides her. "Alright. All ground elements move for anti-cavalry tactics. Take it nice and easy and don't be shy about asking for help."

"I understand." Say'ri replies as four ranks of Pikemen arrange themselves before her.

"Condor to Hanabi." Ash says next. "What are the enemy mages doing?"

"Ehm…it feels like they're using wind magic?" Nino guesses. "They're probably going to do an arrow attack soon." She rode with a Blackbird to act as a mage advisor.

Ash glares at the wall. "From that distance? Yikes. Condor to all units, keep your shields nearby."

He gets a chorus of affirmatives in reply.

"Blackbird to Chessmaster." Blackbird One said suddenly.

Morgan looks around for a few seconds before remembering who that was supposed to be. "I'm listening." He replies.

"Enemy cavalry elements moving on our left flank. I count three distinct forces."

Valm tends to use cavalry in troops of one hundred men. Morgan reminds himself. "Ok, understood. Uh…Chessmaster to left flank, adopt defensive formations." He then covers his radio. "Take us up higher."

"Aye aye!" His Wyvern Knight (rebel NPC) replies readily and the two soar off into the skies.

Morgan, now having a better vantage point of the battle, could see clearly the three rows of cavaliers and Paladins arranging themselves for a charge against the rebel Pikemen.

"I wish I had my mother's senses." Morgan sighs and then flips his radio on again. "Left flank units Bear and Bobcat, draw back fifty paces."

…

The Valmese cavalry captains watch the signal-less response to their presence on the field.

"They just closed up the gap I wanted to charge into." One of the captains grumbles. "Looks like the commander was right about them. Their chain of command is definitely leagues above ours."

"Sneak attacks are entirely negated, and flanking maneuvers won't be nearly as effective as we hope." Another captain agrees. "Still, look at their actual organization…it's full of holes."

"Even rebels have their own colors, I suppose." The first captain sneers. "Good, let's dive right in."

"Shall we?" The third captain raises his arm.

One of his mages fires a flare into the sky.

…

"They're signaling." Blackbird Two warns. "Looks like their archers are about to fire."

"Left flank, raise shields." Morgan commands. "Archers, prepare to intercept enemy cavalry."

On cue, the enemy cavalry charged towards the two lines of Pikemen on the left side of the field.

"They fired." Blackbird Two notes. "Arrows incoming."

"Shields! Brace!" Morgan roars.

As Valm expected, the archer's barrage (enchanted by a stream of wind going from the walls to the battlefield) reached the rebel Pikemen, forcing the Pikemen to huddle underneath their shields and weather their barrage.

Because of the barrage of arrows, the Valmese cavalry were able to maneuver around the wall of pikes and slam into the Rebel's sides.

That being said, Valm also needed to time their charge carefully with the barrage, and thus the charge did not have its full power.

That being said, "not a full charge" means very little when the people that did the charging are now busy stabbing faces.

"Damn. Left reserve, assist!" Morgan commands. "Archers, what are you doing?!"

"Yeah, yeah." The rebel archer captain growls. "They deserve it."

God dammit. Ash shakes his head. "Do your petty rivalries later." He snaps.

"Yes, 'sir'." The rebel captain smirks. "Alright, lads! Full volley! Show those Valmese dogs who's boss around here!"

I figured we'd have a problem like this. Ash thought as the Valmese cavalry attack disengaged due to the rebel barrage. I didn't think they would take their fucking rivalries into a warzone though.

"Yeah, their response time is good but their teamwork is shit." One of the Valm captain sneers as they withdraw out of archer range. "Reorganize, we're going to strike again." His men roar in reply.

"So long as they engage out of the city, Valm's going to have an upper hand in terms of morale." Morgan mutters. "Boss, permission to change tactics."

Already? Ash frowns. "Condor to Chessmaster, it's your field."

"Yes sir." Morgan takes a deep breath. "Genbu! We're moving onto Phase Two. All Phoenix units prepare for CAS."

"What's phase two?" Say'ri asks nobody in particular. "Genbu here, I understand. We're ready."

Currently, the rebel forces are arranged in a slight concave pointed towards the city they're assaulting, with the bulk of the forces on the left and right flanks to deter any maneuvers Valm may make.

Valm, on the other hand, is still streaming cavalry out of the city.

"Reserve units, move to the center. We'll advance and plug that city gate before their cavalry can establish field dominance." Morgan orders. "Archers, prepare volleys, and don't screw it up this time!"

"Che, the battle's just begun and he wants to charge? What a moron." The rebel archer captain scoffs. "Well, fine then…it's better than being run down by enemy cavalry."

"Suzaku to all units, you're cleared to fire on ground targets. Limit their movement." Rafale One orders.

"Easier said than done, lead." Rafale Two grumbles. "Those bastards are hiding."

And they were. The cavalry units that retreated fell back to the slums surrounding the walls to use the cover of both the poorly constructed buildings and the city's archers to their advantage.

"Let's just bomb it." Gripen One says flatly. "It'll solve a lot of our problems later on."

Rafale One agrees, but "Until the boss gives us the order, we're only providing CAS." She replies. "Hold on to your bombs."

…

The momentary lull in battle allowed Say'ri and the bulk of the rebel forces to organize somewhat into an attack force, and they prepared to advance towards the walls under the cover of the Phoenix girls' fire.

…

Upon receiving the report from a messenger, the Valm Commander looks up from his map.

"They've just taken some light losses and their tactician already wants to move to close range?" He scowls. "Are they that confident, or desperate?"

"Probably the latter." His strategist replies. "We assumed that the enemy was much larger than they actually were and thus prepared for a siege battle. Once our cavalry can take to the field instead of hiding behind the walls, we will certainly win at that point. Their tactician likely knows this."

The commander toys with some of the pieces on the map of the city. "Doesn't seem like their tactician thought things all the way through, then." He sighs. "Have the rest of our cavalry use the southern and northern gates, advance slowly and under concealment; the enemy is most likely using their eyes in the sky."

"Should we intercept them, sir?" The strategist asks.

The Commander thinks it over for a bit. "No, just tell our men to be careful…tell me, did they switch tacticians today?"

The Strategist was caught off guard by the question. "Maybe? It's hard to tell as our enemies avoid conventional signals."

"But he's still in attendance, I presume?" The Commander presses.

"I assume so." The tactician nods slowly. "We say Wyvern Knights equipped with those…things."

"Hm." The Commander waves the Strategist away. So the lord of the coast is NOT in command? He thought. What's going on? Based on the spies I sent, he's supposed to be the one in control of the entire army. Or could Princess Say'ri be…

He then mentally backpedaled. No, that's not right. They are both capable of commanding, but it's not as if they're the only capable commanders on the field. If there are multiple tacticians on their side, then the plan of combating their responsiveness through increasing the points of engagement will definitely fail.

A small voice in his head told him that he was giving Ash too much credit, but the Commander pushes the voice away: this was a war, and his enemy had a penchant for unusual strategy.

We are up against an army that cannot be flanked, surprised, or overwhelmed, except through drastically superior numbers...I should operate under the assumption that they have a counter for every plan I make. The Commander decides. Dear Naga, what a pain in the back. He shakes his head and calls for a messenger.

…

Said messenger quickly delivered said message to the message's intended targets.

"He wants us to do what?" The Sniper Captain repeated in surprise. "Is he serious?"

"I'm just doing my job here." The messenger shrugs.

"I feel like he's being too careful with this, but fine." The Sniper Captain motions to one of his mages, and the mage fires a flare into the air. "Let's do this his way."

…

"Chessmaster, the enemies are doing something strange." Blackbird Two reports. "I don't see their cavalry anywhere."

"It's not hard to figure out where they went." Morgan mutters. "They're hiding in the buildings. Left and right flanks, watch the slum roads and set up barricades if necessary. What's the city doing?"

"Hard to say. There's a lot of occlusion along their walls." Blackbird One replies. "Our scouting won't be effective with this much overhead cover. Sheesh…"

The walls were piled high with boxes and cloth, anything to obscure the archers from being sighted from above.

"Ah…the trappings of fame." Blackbird Two sighs dreamily.

"Fame later, spotting now." Ash sighs. "I'm assuming that they're running cavalry through the slum's streets. Watch your corners."

"This is Genbu." Say'ri reports. "We're ready to begin the assault on the enemy's main gate…A-er, Condor, what are you planning? We didn't bring any ladders."

"Don't worry, Genbu, we got this one covered." Ash assures her. "Just keep your head down and let us handle the fireworks."

"Genbu, roger." Say'ri replies, but she's still unsure about the situation as she carefully observes the road between her, her men, and the imposing city gate. At least the rickety structures flanking the main road provided her men a measure of cover against the arrows being aimed at them.

"Tomcats, you're up." Ash says. "Blackbirds, has the city sent out interceptors?"

"Not a thing, boss." Blackbird Two replies. "Guess they're too busy pissing themselves to come at us."

Ash shakes his head. "Still nothing, huh? Dammit. Alright, keep your eyes open."

"My eyes can't be any more open." Blackbird Two laughs.

…

In short order, two of the Tomcat girls flew from the camp (set up within a clearing in the forest near the city) with an obnoxiously large gun between the legs of their Pegasi.

"Tomcat One, Tomcat Two, we're approaching the target." Tomcat One announces. "All ground units keep your head down, this thing's really heavy."

And it was; the two of them stripped all armor and barding and supplementary equipment just to carry it. Not the Cruise Engines, though; the engines were fine.

"Aiming this thing is really hard." Tomcat Two notes with a soft pat on her Pegasus's neck. "How many shots do we get?"

"One each." Ash replies. "Remember, the instant it starts overheating, detach it."

"Aye aye." Tomcat One replies. "I'll take the first shot then."

"Roger that. Condor to Genbu, once we have impact, you'll be cleared to attack. Don't space out."

Don't space out, he says. Say'ri huffs in her mind. "I understand, Condor. We'll be ready when the moment comes."

Some of the rebel soldiers, hearing the odd humming over their heads, instinctively looked up.

"Holy shit." More than one soldier muttered.

…

"Uh…captain?" One of the Valmese archers says shakily. "We have a serious problem coming at us…"

The Valm Sniper Captain followed the soldier's pointed finger to see…

What looks like a long tube being slung underneath a Pegasus.

What the fuck is that? The captain couldn't help but think. Pegasus performance enhancers? Wait no that's bad no matter what it is! "Mages! Start casting! Archers! I don't care if you miss, shoot it down, now!"

…

"Whoa, they're opening up on you guys." Blackbird One notes. "Tomcats, you ok?"

"Yeah, we're breaking off from our attack." Tomcat One grumbles. "This thing is heavy. My arms are getting tired."

"Condor here, what's the rate of charging on Gatecrasher?" Ash asks, doing a flyby over the city walls to see if the archers would shoot at him instead (they don't).

"I think I'm at halfway." Tomcat One replies.

"Same here." Says Tomcat Two.

Che, to think that the spool up time would be so drastically different during combat conditions… Ash sighs. "Alright, slight change of plans. All units hold position until Gatecrasher is ready to deploy."

"Roger that. All ground units maintain position!" Morgan orders.

…

[Exposition Time!]

…

The Gatecrasher is an experimental weapon designed for the sole purpose of bursting through gates. As far as mechanics go, it is a large railgun slung underneath a Pegasus with a clip-size of eight wooden stakes. Each stake uses an explosive steel head.

It looks like a coil of eight steel bars attached to a box.

Due to design flaws (namely, the inability to turn it off quickly once it's turned on) the weapon empties its entire clip at the target when it is fully charged.

It needs charging?

Gatecrasher uses an experimental charging system developed by reverse-engineering Nah's Fanelia Cannon and the rapid-loading element of the Thunderbolt Anti-Ship Cannon. The result is a cannon with the gate-breaking punching power packed into a reasonably manageable size.

So why not make it ground artillery instead?

We tried. The problem with it being on the ground was that it was oddly difficult to design it in a fashion that takes advantage of it being a ground mount. To wit:

The advantage of making ground-based artillery is that the ground can brace and absorb shock far better than a moving platform like a Pegasus (thus allowing for a stronger cannon). Problem: The stronger cannon uses more spirit dust, and thus 'kicks' when it fires…which will utterly break the rails on the cannon and will render the cannon useless after a few shots.

Even better: ground artillery is supposed to be heavy, and we can't move around heavier artillery because the carpentry engineering isn't there yet. We've tried it, and the wooden base just can't handle the stress of moving the gun around. Moving it piece by piece doesn't work either, since, again, the heavier gun breaks on use.

Lastly, ground cannons are just harder for us (a small invasion army) to use. If we lose our position we would need to leave it behind.

So…yeah. Having it hauled and fired by air is objectively better for us at this point.

Actual answer: The weapon had a turnaround rate of three weeks, and though Morgan's design was excellent we just didn't have the time to do anything else.

Since the cannon can't be too close to the belly of the Pegasus due to the possibly of extreme overheating, it's held aloft underneath the Pegasus through ample wiring. Unfortunately this means that the massive cannon sways during flight and utterly ruins the Pegasi's flying ability.

Also it looks like a giant wire penis without the companion spheres.

…I mean…sure.

Anyways, the fact that the gun can't be fixed down means that the Tomcats, who are the smoothest fliers and are the best in terms of managing inertia, are tasked with managing and firing this weapon.

[Exposition Over]

…

Let's see…fast forward thirty minutes.

In those thirty minutes:

Valmese Cavalry have moved into position among the slums, and are patiently waiting for their signal to attack. None of them felt the pressing desire to charge out into the open on their own after seeing some of their allies who did get gunned down in short order.

Valm's infantry are still waiting behind the walls, spread out among the city streets but primarily concentrated near the gates just in case if the gates were breached.

Valm's archers were still busy firing volley after volley towards the rebel's front lines.

On the other hand…

The Rebel cavalry were waiting to engage any Valmese cavalry that might appear.

The Rebel infantry were attacked by the archers sporadically and switched formations to use the slums for cover.

The Rebel air force were still observing the situation, occasionally firing at the Valmese archers to ensure that said archers would keep their heads down and avoid firing back.

"Tomcat, are you ready yet?" Ash asks, irritated. What's with the Valmese army? Why aren't they running us down?

"Sorry boss! I think we're ready at any time now." Tomcat One unfortunately thought that Ash was angry with her.

"I don't appreciate the fire we're currently under, Ash." Say'ri grumbles. "Don't let us die out here."

"Gatecrasher, proceed to firing point." Ash orders. "All allied air assets, cover their approach."

"Genbu, move to the gate and keep your heads low, be ready to attack at any time." Morgan adds. "Left and right flank units, stay focused and advance in tandem. Beware of enemy cavalry units."

"Blackbird One here. I don't see any enemy cavalry units at all, watch yourselves out there."

"Shit, still?" Ash growls. "And here I thought they'd come after us by now."

"They're too scared now." Rafale One laughs. "Alright, Rafales on me, we're going in."

…

"Still no new orders?" A Valmese Paladin asks his lieutenant. "They're attacking the gate now."

"Our orders are still to wait until their troops have entered the city entirely." The lieutenant sighs. "I have to admit I don't like how cautious he's being."

"Judging by the weapons they keep bringing out-" The Paladin winced despite himself when he heard the archers on the walls cry out. "I certain understand the commander's thoughts. Pass word to the men: be ready to attack, but keep their heads low and don't get curious."

"Yes sir."

…

After a few volleys of fire from the Seiryu and Phoenix squadrons, the Valmese archers opted to hide under the cover they piled onto the walls rather than continue their engagement.

"Pah…well, I guess I can't blame them." Ash shrugs. "We got our window, Chessmaster."

"Genbu, standby for assault." Morgan says. "What about the Gatecrasher?"

"We're in place." Tomcat One says triumphantly. "Discharging in five…four…"

…

The Valmese archers' orders were to hold the walls for as long as necessary and to vacate the walls as soon as the enemies brought out a new weapon for use…obviously they were to delay the breach for as long as they could, but they were advised to avoid throwing away their lives.

Given that there was a Pegasus with a massive gun underneath it currently aiming for the gate, the Valmese Sniper Captain figured that their job was done. "Ok, pass the word down the line, we're abandoning the walls."

"That thing doesn't look too dangerous." One of the messengers noted concerning the Gatecrasher. "I mean…whatever it is they're shooting at us with is worse."

"One shot one kill, yeah." One of the archers muttered. "The little shits just don't fight fair."

"Incoming!" One of the other archers yelled shortly before another wave of Phoenix (and Seiryu) fire struck the walls. The one who did the yelling did not survive.

"Those bastards." The Valm Captain growls…before realizing that the weird weapons mounted on two of the Pegasus Knights were glowing. "Off the walls, on the double!"

…

"Gatecrasher, firing!" Tomcat One declares.

The weapon itself fired its payload of eight stakes in a manner not unlike vomiting.

Ew.

The salvo of shots impacted themselves into the wooden gate for a brief moment before the shock of the impact detonated the warheads and sent the shrapnel within said warhead tearing through the gate.

However, the gate held.

"Tomcat Two, firing!"

The second barrage of fire struck the gate and blew it to pieces, showering the enemy soldiers inside the walls with bits of metal and wood.

"Breach! Breach!" Morgan yells into his radio. "Ground units! Advance! Air units, commence CAS! Clear the gate area!"

"Son of a bitch!" A Valmese Warrior Captain on the ground exclaims after he overcame the shock of having the gate he was supposed to watch explode off of its hinges. "Form ranks! Do not let their troops through!"

He unfortunately did not have much a choice in the matter, as one of the enemy Pegasus knights dove over his men and dropped a Force bomb right into their ranks.

In order to preserve morale when working with ground units unaccustomed to seeing the results of incendiaries and shrapnel warheads, a new type of bomb was invented.

As the name implies, the Force Bomb is pretty much a lightless flashbang (so it's just a bang). It makes a loud noise along with a hefty blast of wind, but is otherwise nonlethal. It does stagger and confuse the target, which makes said targets easy pickings for anybody else currently on the battlefield.

Thus, when the Rebel ground forces stormed through the gate, they saw the Plegian guards crawling around on the streets desperately shaking off the aftereffects of the force bombs.

Without waiting for orders, the Rebel soldiers attacked and slaughtered the Valmese guardsmen.

"It really is one trick after another." The Valm Sniper Captain growls. "Messenger: tell the squad leaders to use the side streets and to keep their heads covered. We'll show them what a city battle is really like. Rest of you, follow me."

…

"We've captured the gates! All forces move in to the city center, we'll take their head before the day is done!" Say'ri declares triumphantly.

She then hears a voice in her ear. "Blackbird Two to Genbu, the city's occlusion is too high." The voice says. "We will not be able to provide support unless you stay on the main streets."

"Genbu, I understand." Say'ri replies. "We'll adjust accordingly."

The main streets of the city are wide and surrounded by reasonably tall buildings, and due to wartime preparations it was littered with makeshift barricades designed to stop an attack from the ground, with preciously little cover against any attacks from the air or from the buildings themselves.

While this meant that Say'ri's advance would be supported from the air, it also meant that anyone marching on the main street would be undefended against any attacks aimed at their heads.

And naturally, that's what Valm capitalized on.

…

Say'ri led her force of Myrimdons and Swordmasters (as well as some blokes with Axes. They're not even fighters, just guys who have axes) down the main road towards the first enemy defensive barricade.

"Archers, ready!" She hears the Valm side captain bellow out.

"Shields!" She orders, and her Myrimdons raise their tower shields in a defensive line and advance forward.

The first barrage of enemy arrows impacts the shields to no real effect.

"Thank you, Ash." Say'ri mutters. "Advance!"

She was then suddenly made aware of a barrage of arrows whistling onto her head when one of her bodyguards was critically struck and killed.

"Shit! Longbows!" Say'ri yelled out. "Keep your heads down!"

While she had wanted for them to put the tower shields over their heads, it would create the secondary problem of providing no defenses against the archers in front of them.

"Phoenix! We need support!" Say'ri yells into her radio as her forces suffered from another barrage of arrows. "Get rid of that barricade in front of us!" It was ultimately easier than trying to find and kill archers hidden among the densely packed town buildings.

She heard a reply: "Typhoons, roger, commencing Close Air Support."

…

The Valmese forces heard the roar of whatever the enemy Pegasi had underneath their wings as a quad of said Pegasus Knights flew overhead. By chance, the captain of this particular blockade point was a veteran of the Phoenix Squadron's raiding attacks in the month prior, and came to the conclusion that staying and maintaining the position was a Really Bad Idea.

Thus, he and his men pulled away from the defensive barricade of carts, boxes, and barrels almost as soon as he saw the enemy air units go over his head.

Shortly after his retreat, the barricades suffered a series of explosions and scattered all along the street.

"Move, move!" Say'ri eggs her men on as they suffer yet another barrage of longbow fire.

They didn't get a chance to do so, as a yell from one of the buildings caught their attention. Though she didn't understand the yell, the reaction from the nearby buildings told her exactly what it was.

Civilians armed with spears appeared from within buildings and the side streets, all with the intention of protecting their city from the invaders.

"Seriously?" Say'ri growls. "Cut them down!" She snaps.

Though the villagers were ballsy, they were still the equivalent of a level 1 Donnel with less health and even less babysitting, and the first wave of them were cut down almost instantaneously. The rest of the villagers, by the virtue of being villagers, quickly lost their nerve and fell back.

"Just as expected…pah." Say'ri growls. "Watch for attackers from the side streets, we move!"

…

[1st Person Camera]

…

Whoo…this is really something.

Very descriptive. Truly, the work of a genius.

Let's see.

Given that we're flying cover and aerial recon over the city, the city itself looks like a massive square wheel, where the spokes of said wheel are the main streets. The city itself is also build up high into the sky…for its time. Most of the buildings are four stories or so. There doesn't seem to be a rich people neighborhood, though.

Our city is better.

The main streets are pretty wide, tall buildings aside, so we can do air support over the roads just fine. The problem comes from the millions of narrow side streets in the city. As expected, the city's militia and idiot villagers know the side streets pretty well, so they're constantly harassing Say'ri as she approaches the middle of the city.

Granted, the ground forces are proving themselves superior during their attack (and as far as I can see the Valm's defenses are just crumpling like paper) but at the same time the constant harassment is definitely causing damage. Hmm…

"Condor to Bulldog."

"This is Bulldog." Captain Stephan replies. "What can we do for you, general?"

Again with the rank inflations… "You guys have a new job: go protect the ground commander." I can move these guys around as I please since they're under my direct command. "She's pushing towards the city's center at the moment."

Stephan's forces are currently manning the gate.

"Yes sir." Stephan replies, and moves out towards the front of the column.

…

So…why isn't Valm doing something more substantial?

I mean…

We made a shitton of fires, so Valm definitely noticed, yet they did nothing until we started the operation.

We arranged ourselves into attack formations at around 0900 this morning, they noticed and sent cavalry.

Their cavalry bopped us in the head a few times but that was it.

At 1000 I pulled out the Gatecrashers, and we breached at 1030.

It's…what, 1100 right now? Say'ri's making slow and steady progress and she's halfway through the city.

I don't know how fast Ye Olde Invasion Wars are supposed to be fought, but I feel like even with the Bullshit Tactics I field it should take far more than just two hours to gain our war goals in this fight. I mean, sure, we're not going to capture the entire city in just two hours, but…they outnumber us badly. There should be something far bigger than this waiting for us.

Morgan knows this, which is why he's leaving almost half of our attack force holding the area near the western gate.

Why are we leaving Morgan in charge of the ground war again?

It took us ten days (roughly) to march from the city we held to Steiger. In those ten days I ran a few trials that can loosely be classified as 'how quickly can Ash lose control of a large battlefield?' The response is "Pretty Fucking Fast Actually".

Despite all my hopes otherwise, I'm not much of a strategist. I'm not bad, but when we're dealing with a theatre that requires serious battlefield coordination across a wide scope I tend to lose track of unit positions very quickly. Add in the fact that there's still that Griffon squadron on Valm's side…point being, I can't command when I'm busy trying to stop my face from being punched in, and Morgan's just objectively better at it than I am.

For the record: the soldiers are encouraged to take active and reactive decisions based on their current situation on the ground, but at the end of the day they're still highly reliant on there being a traditional chain of command to operate properly.

Anyways…I'm expecting Valm to do something soon. I just wish I knew what it was.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

Ultimately, Valm waited until Say'ri pushed all the way to the heart of city before making their collective counterattack.

Upon reaching the city center, Say'ri saw small bands of Valmese Warriors emerge from the town hall and charge towards them.

Too little to warrant an air strike. Say'ri thought. "Swordmasters, with me. We will engage the incoming enemy."

The two groups of soldiers – no more than forty men on each side – charge at each other and engage in melee combat.

…

Suddenly, there was a great roar all around the Allied Force troops. Windows all around them burst open and show mages with their spells on their fingertips, drawing the eyes of the allied forces upwards.

That made room for the Assassins and Armored Knights to move in through the side streets. The Armored Knights appeared as if out of thin air and closed the path of retreat behind the allied forces. The assassins, per their class name, dove straight into the ranks of the allied force soldiers and began killing anyone they could see.

Upon seeing their path of retreat suddenly closed by ranks upon ranks of Armored Knights, the less disciplined units in the rebels began to panic, and the Valmese assassin units selectively targeted these men (especially the leaders) to help further drive the unit into disarray.

Say'ri, who had just engaged into battle with the Valmese Warriors, was in no position to turn and assist. Instead, she settled for the second best option.

"Genbu, requesting CAS." She says into her radio to the confusion of the Warrior trying to take her head off. "Our rear is compromised by enemy forces."

"Blackbird copies, sending support now."

Valm, despite the ferocity of their counterattack, nevertheless shook at the Pegasus Knights suddenly over their heads.

"Shields, men! Shields!" The Armor Knight Captain calls out to rally his men, and the line of knights crouch as one and raise their shields. The massive shields used by the Armor Knights overlap and form a solid wall of steel, and the force bombs bounce off (somewhat) uselessly against them before exploding.

They still do disorient their targets with the explosions, but the lower stance adopted by the Knights stopped them from being blown around.

"Enemy element is still alive. Repeat: enemy element is still alive." Blackbird Two warns into her radar. "Commence second sweep."

"Easier said than done here." Gripen One grumbles. "It's too narrow for us to bomb and they're too well armored for our guns."

"They're opening up on us, too." Gripen Two notes as the sky starts to fill with balls of Wind. The Valmese mage corps saturated in the city was starting their interception fire against the Phoenix.

Suddenly, Blackbird One took all of their attention. "Mayday, Mayday! I'm under attack!"

…

[1st Person Camera]

…

How?! "All AA ascend and support! Blackbird One, dive!"

Our squadrons of almost twenty Wyverns zoom high into the sky.

Fucking hell, the cloud cover got real bad since this morning.

Blackbird One dives and is being followed by a squadron of Wyvern Lords.

"How did they sneak up on you?!" I demand.

"Two wasn't doing her job!" Blackbird One snaps. "Ah, god this hurts!"

"I'm doing my best over here!" Two retaliates. "The ground units are all over the place!"

That's probably what happened…the two of them are supposed to work as a unit, and right now we're working on a field larger than our coverage distance, so there are a lot of blind spots a smart enemy can sneak through.

"Oh hell." Blackbird Two breathes. "Warning! Multiple enemy air units from all sides!"

Fuck.

We frantically look around even as we're riding to Blackbird One's rescue.

The enemy air units from Steiger Fortress finally showed up.

No, that's wrong.

The enemy air units from Steiger Fortress finally decided to attack. They practically have the entire airspace surrounded…how long would a maneuver like this take?

Longer than a few hours, that's for sure.

We attacked into a well-fortified trap. Shit. "Phoenix Company, we will now engage in total air superiority combat!" I yell into the radio. "Stay with your squadrons and watch your spacing!"

The Wyvern Lords chasing after Blackbird One toss a few javelins her way, but it's pretty obvious they're not trying to kill her.

They just wanted to pull us out of position…credit to them for that. "Alright." I take a deep breath. "Condor Flight, you guys with me?"

"Two." "Three." "Four."

"Ok…all accounted for." I mutter. "Establishing datalink."

Ping.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

The Wyvern Lord squadron was actually tasked to intercept and tie down the enemy lead element (Ash) while the griffon Squadron closed in for the actual fighting. They were originally supposed to fly high with the sun behind them or to take cloud cover when necessary and sneak up on said lead unit, but they stumbled into Blackbird One who flew lower than normal due to the clouds obstructing her vision.

Thus, figuring that it would be better for them to bait a trap that their target will respond to, the squadron attacked Blackbird One. As they expected, the ones first to respond was none other than the enemy's lead element.

The Valm Wyvern Leader could not help but laugh. "It's payback time, you-"

The end of his sentence was cut from him as a Poleaxe flashed precariously close to his neck. Fortunately, his neck itself was spared due to his reflexes.

"Ok, no taunting. Focus on fighting." The Wyvern Lord growled as he turned to engage Ash. "Message clearly received, you little bastard." He charges at Ash's exposed back.

…and is eminently surprised when his swing was met with nothing but air. Fortunately his training overrode his surprise and he ducked underneath his enemy's counterswing.

"What the…" the Lord twists to check his target. "Come back here!"

Ash had immediately disengaged following the exchange and was targeting some other Valmese attacker.

The Lord turns with the intention to give chase, but he is immediately stopped by another rebel Wyvern aiming for his underbelly.

"For a small group you're sure persistent." He growls and turns to chase after his new target.

…

"Good, continue to provide cover for Blackbird." Ash comments. "Keep your aim straight and your asses covered, we can do this!" To hammer his point home, he cleaves a Valmese Wyvern Lord who wasn't paying attention in half during a fly by.

"Boss, the rest of the enemy forces is hitting our ground troops." Condor Two warns. "We need to go help them."

All over the city Valmese Armored Knights were converging upon the western path to the center of the town, squeezing in the rebel line and systematically cutting them down.

"We don't have the luxury. Focus on what's in front of you first." Ash snaps.

…

Morgan, upon seeing the sudden influx of enemy forces, whistles under his breath. "Whoa. That's really bad for us." He mutters, tapping his chin. "Alright."

He returned to the base by the time Gatecrasher was fired.

Morgan jumps down from his perch on a tree and gets the attention of the base's workers. "Pack up, we're moving."

"What?" One of them grunts.

"We've lost track of the enemy cavalry, so some of them are probably coming here." Morgan says. "Let's get out of the way before they do that."

"We're not moving without the boss's orders." One of the men retaliates. "Or Say'ri's." He adds after a pause.

"Then die here." Morgan shrugs. "I'm sure the boss won't mind if you lose all of his ordnance because you were too stubborn to listen to someone he's appointed."

The worker stared at Morgan for a minute. "Alright, lads! We're packing up!" He yells out.

And just in time, too. "Chessmaster, we have cavalry breaking out of the slums. They are headed to your position." Blackbird Two calls out with forced calmness.

"Damn." Morgan takes out a spellbook. "Prioritize the air munitions. Stars, we'll delay the enemy for as long as we can."

The Stars are Nino's brigade of mages. Currently, they're comprised of just the Destroyer Group Six girls.

"Yes sir!" Raiden Senior salutes sharply.

"I'll assist with the defense as well." Nah says, already suited up in her X-winged jacket armor.

Morgan nods. "Alright then…please slow them down before they reach the edge of the forest."

…

The Valmese cavalry force headed towards the rebel encampment was divided into five separate units, all of them approaching on different angles toward the position of the rebel's camp.

While the rebels they were used to fighting never bothered to set war camps for major engagements, the Valm Commander rightfully inferred that these particular enemies, with their air units flying in and out of the city airspace constantly, would have need of a forward supply base somewhere.

While the rebel Pegasus Knights would inexplicably disappear from sight whenever the Valmese knights got distracted, they were able to guess on the rebel base position after watching from the slums for the entire morning.

Thus they knew where to attack.

…

A Cavalier belonging to the closest Valm unit (closest to the forest) noticed a glint of orange against the cloudy sky and signaled the rest of his allies. Said glint was, in fact, racing towards them very quickly.

"Are they counterattacking…?" The unit captain (a Paladin) mutters. "What is that strange light?"

He got something close to an answer when a small red blur streaked over his (and his men's) heads. Despite all of this, they did not slow their progress.

"What was with that armor?" His lieutenant, a sharp-eyed Ranger, wonders. "Boss, that was an enemy."

"Ignore it, we're targeting the camp." The Paladin replies.

As if they had that choice.

Nah, now behind the enemy's charging line, turned and unhoistered her railgun.

The Paladin was made aware of the attacks at the rear of his column when he heard the screams of the men as they were systematically struck down by…something.

"Dammit. Turnabout! Defend yourselves!" The Paladin captain roars.

"Good." Nah breathes and palms her Dragonstone.

…

The Valmese cavalry on the ground had arranged themselves into a loose column to counter the would-be attacker. Through their training, they were usually able to handle most threats to their livelihood.

Sadly, Armored Dragon Nah did not constitute 'most threats'.

The Valmese men were thus (not unreasonably) surprised when the little girl hovering in the sky charged at them…and then was suddenly replaced by a massive spinning dragon tail.

"MANAKETE!" The Captain managed to bellow before Nah slammed her tail into his side, knocking him and five others off of their mounts.

The rest of the cavaliers scattered and brought out their javelins, showering Nah with waves upon waves of…javelins.

"That mobility is absurd." One of the cavaliers seethe shortly before Nah shot him in the chest.

He's right, by the way: her evasive maneuvers were utterly erratic, and the thrown javelins had little chance of landing a hit.

That being said, the Valmese knights had noticed something: her attacks (whatever they were) were only marginally effective against their armor, and were practically useless against the Great Knights.

"Fan out! Keep her distracted!" A Valmese Cavalier yells. "We'll keep her pinned here!"

As if to spite him, Nah climbed into the sky and flew over to assault a different Valm unit.

"You scared her off." His friend teased. "Rally! Continue our charge onto the enemy camp!"

In the end, though Nah is able to utterly disrupt the columns of Valmese cavaliers, she can't stop them entirely by her lonesome. It also doesn't help that she's avoiding lethal shots and attacks on purpose, only utilizing lethal force when she's counterattacking.

…

Morgan, on the other hand, isn't nearly as nice.

A few Cavaliers, tasting victory on the air, decided to charge forward at maximum speed and ran head-first into Morgan's Arcthunders.

When the other units rode past the charred corpses of the idiot frontliners, they (reasonably) became cautious of the woods.

"There's no foliage around here." One of the Valmese men muttered. "We should be able to see the mage that attacked them…whoa!"

The air around him suddenly filled with Elfire and Elthunder spells and his unit beat a hasty retreat.

"Che, shooting while having this spell up is hard." Raiden Senior groaned. "Little sis, you ok?"

"Yes." Raiden Junior gasps. "Just-just need a moment." Her transparency spell broke almost immediately as she collapsed to her knees.

I really need to set a formal and easy to remember name for this one: it's the Screen Cover spell.

"We don't really have a moment." Morgan says, dropping his transparency as well. "We need to hit the left flank next. If you can't handle it, go back to the camp and help them pack faster."

"I-I can do it." Raiden Junior stands a little shakily.

Morgan thinks it over for a few seconds. "Get your little sister back to the camp." He says to Raiden Senior. "We can't retreat if you're passed out in the woods."

"Eeeh?! I can still fight, too!" Raiden Senior sulks.

Morgan just sighs. "Go."

Though the brown-haired Raiden sisters were not happy about being pulled out of combat after one salvo, they really didn't have much of a choice.

I made a gamble by putting all of our best fighters in the operation. Morgan thought as he moved to the next interception point with the other two Stars girls in tow. I didn't think it would come back to bite me in the rear this badly.

…

While all of this is going on, Valmese soldiers were encircling and engaging the rebel forces within the city at all angles.

Without support, the rebel troops quickly broke. Those who could run did, those who couldn't were boxed in by the Valmese Armored Knights and then shot full of arrows.

"There's more to war than just good equipment." The Valmese commander commented when he received word of the Rebel's losses. "I'll teach you that right here, Lord of the Coasts."

However, what the city did not count on was the fact that the rebels were able to keep the western gate open, and with the gate open enterprising thugs from the slums decided that it was now a good time to pay a visit to the city properly.

These thugs naturally made the city guard's job harder as they fanned out into the city to basically just be assholes. There aren't enough of them to attack and take the other gates, after all.

…

With the inclusion of the city's less Valm-inclined elements, the already hectic battlefield became a clusterfuck of incredible proportions.

Due to the resulting breakdown of Valm coordination, Say'ri and her small group of Swordmasters were able to coordinate with the Bulldog unit to strike at various Valm elements on the ground and help regain a measure of the control for the Rebel units.

But they're still nowhere near close enough to actually winning the fight.

The two of them had just managed to surprise and eliminate a wall of Armored Knights barricading a wide side street.

"Genbu to Blackbirds, can you hear me?" Say'ri says to her radio. "Still nothing, huh?"

"The Boss did say that magic will interfere with our radios." Captain Stephan noted. "Given what's going on over our heads…"

He looked up to see spells being thrown at a frankly stupid pace into the sky. "Looks like our girls are putting up a good fight." He says approvingly.

"Good fight or no, our men on the ground are being slaughtered." Say'ri says as she checks her gear. "While I expected our attempts to capture the city to fail, I didn't expect Valm to be this prepared."

"Beg pardon, your highness, but you WERE attacking one of Valm's core cities." Stephan laughed. "If this were the Feroxi capital, all of you would've been dead before you reached the walls."

"And if we had Ash's help?" Say'ri cracks a small smile.

Stephan had to actually think for that one. "Well…ok, then it might be a bit more even."

They were then distracted by the sound of footsteps coming from a side path nearby.

Stephan raises his fist, and his soldiers regroup into four ranks of ten and prepare their crossbows. "Princess?"

"I'd prefer if you did not address me as such." Say'ri draws her Killing Edge. "I'll leave the front to you, Captain."

"Aye aye." Stephan only has eyes for the incoming group of Valmese Mercenaries as Say'ri barges her way into a nearby house.

…

[Aerial Theater]

…

When the bulk of the Valmese air force struck, the entirety of the Phoenix and Seiryu squadrons split off over the entire city to engage.

This was seen as an odd move by Valm, and thus they responded by doing the (fundamentally) same thing: saturating their forces over the city airspace to engage all enemy targets.

However, Valm very quickly realized that their enemies had broken off into their formations of four on purpose and quickly adapted their strategies to match…which was just "let's all get together and just kill these fuckers."

Although the Seiryu squadron was equipped with the airman rifle, their inexperience ultimately proved too much for them and soon after the battle started the squadron routed. Around half of the squadron was killed, the rest escaped.

The Phoenix squadron, on the other hand…

The Valm forces found themselves on the receiving end of unusual strategies this fight: their enemies (the Phoenix) were divided into nine squadrons of four, and each squadron was fighting as if they were one woman.

The Phoenix could not be flanked, could not be surprised, and…surprisingly could not do a whole lot of damage.

"It must've been because of all of their defensive maneuvers." A Valmese knight recounted later. "They flew like mad protecting each other, so they couldn't attack all that often."

But even though the Phoenix had fewer chances to attack, they still had the sacred art of Gun, and thus every chance they received to be aggressive resulted in a Valmese air unit disengaging with serious injuries or crash-landing in the city.

With their defensive flying, the Phoenix squadron was able to mitigate what would've otherwise been a lethal situation for themselves into a lethal situation for everybody besides themselves.

In other words: while the Pegasus girls were busy dogfighting, the bulk of the Valmese air force was busy cleaning house in the city.

…

…

[1st Person Camera]

…

…

This is rough. The datalink system makes it easier, but hell, this is rough.

I think this is the fifth Wyvern Lord I'm fighting against. Or maybe it's the third guy for the third time, I can't tell anymore.

The day's starting to end.

The sheer amount of magical damage Valm is hurling from the ground at us has made our radios entirely useless. Given that the ground and air elements are doing their own things, I'm not too worried about this, but as soon as we get breathing room the fact that we've lost a measure of our previous coordination will be glaringly evident.

Here's to hoping nobody's paying attention once we go back to normal coordination, because the last thing I need is for some sharp-eyed commander to figure out that we're weak to magic spam.

What's the current condition?

Seiryu's entirely gone. Half of my Wyverns have taken damage but we're making do with the Vulnerary needles (inject healing right into our bloodstream).

The Rafales are down. They're currently hiding out in the slums somewhere and they still have their guns, so that's good…Raf One took a javelin through the lung. The vulneraries are keeping her alive, fortunately, but…

Gripen Squadron broke from the combat zone to protect Blackbird Two. I haven't seen them for a while.

Typhoon and Tomcat squadrons went to cover the retreat of some of the Seiryu girls. I've lost sight of them too.

Otherwise…

We've done a pretty good job with keeping the squadrons together in their isolated units, but we are definitely running on fumes here.

What is the datalink, anyway?

The Datalink is the helmet gear mounted onto our mounts. They interconnect with each other and feed visual information from the mounts to each other so, say, if Magna has someone on his tail, then (though she's not here) Minerva with the link would be able to warn him just by looking at the chaser.

Obviously, this has some serious drawbacks: namely, the amount of connection nodes can't be too great or our mounts will get flooded with information and their reaction speed drastically reduces. To combat the information overload, using the datalink means that the squadrons need to be far away from each other to reduce bad information.

The biggest drawback then is the fact that the information is being processed by our mounts, and they prioritize personal safety over combat advantages, which means that the mount and the rider need to have a good rapport for the datalink to be effective.

For example: Magna will slightly raise his head if he's pulling up, twist to his right if he wants to bank right, tense his back if he wants to bank left, and slightly arch his back if he wants to dive.

I need to pay attention to Magna's little physical quirks and adapt my attack patterns accordingly, or else he'll completely disorient me and then I'm utterly useless for the next five seconds.

It's got a lot of rough edges.

Game skill equivalent: Datalink – Decrease damage taken and damage dealt by 10% for each unit that possesses this skill in a 3 tile radius, max effect 40%.

…

Anyways.

This furball is a huge mess, but we're still kicking (for how long, I don't know).

Morgan shot up a flare a while back to tell us that the airstrip has been compromised. I didn't see a second flare for compromised equipment, so I hope that means he and the support staff got out ok.

I've lost contact with Say'ri, but she's with Stephan and he knows how to use his unit down to a T.

The majority of the rebel forces in the town are scattered to hell and back, regrouping them for this battle will be impossible.

I don't know what's going on in Steiger Fortress. Judging by the fact that there hasn't been any major shifts in enemy movement, the Fortress either fell impressively fast or hasn't been attacked at all. I hope it's the former.

Valm has locked down all the gates out of the city, and they have a shitton of archers on the walls.

…

I mean, I knew that this attack was going to be less than effective in the first place, but their reactions have been nothing short of impeccable.

I hate to say it, but it feels like I have an information leak I need to handle.

For now, though…

I tap my pocket spellbook for the megaphone spell.

"All units, listen up!" My voice resonates through the air. "Commence assault on our target objective and pull out immediately afterwards!"

If you remember, our target objective was the town's supply stores.

Sucks to fail a bonus, but if we keep this up my girls are actually going to start dying. Best finish this while we still have some steam left.

"All AA on me!" I yell normally. "We'll provide cover for the rest of our air units!"

All of our Wyvern Knights disengage from combat as one and reform into our flock.

While remembering to disengage the Datalink, that's very important.

The enemy air elements are momentarily confused by the fact that we just suddenly refused to fight, but they're going to start giving chase at any mome…there they go. Awesome.

That's still a lot of air power on our asses as the Pegasus Knights reorganize into a cohesive squadron.

Good thing the radios still work at super short ranges. "We're going to do a flyby of the enemy's supply centers and bomb it. Who has incendiaries left?"

"We do, boss." That's…um. Fulcrum. They're one of the 'decent at everything' squadrons.

Deep breaths. "Alright, all units, we're going to sweep the area before Fulcrum can make their run. Go in at full power and drop everything you have."

"Boss, your left!" Condor Four alerts me.

We look to our left and catch a blur of brown.

Fuck me. "Two with me, rest of you continue the assault!" I don't need you on my ass right now, Griffon knight! Though I'm glad you showed up alone.

The two of us turn to engage the incoming sole Griffon.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

[Valm Command Room, Town Hall]

…

It was now the edge of dusk, the Valm Commander stood facing the window looking outward at the bright colors of the spells being fired over the city and the multitude of units deployed in an effort to safeguard the skies of the city.

He heard a dull thud behind him. "The information you brought was well-used, Sage Excellus. I thank you." The Commander says without turning.

Excellus smirks. "That poor, poor fool of a man." He says. "I must thank Yen'fay for giving us the opportunity to kill his own beloved sister."

So that's how it is. The Commander thought. "Are you here to take command, sir?"

"Oh heavens, no!" Excellus…laughs/shrieks/does something. "I have no desire to get involved in such dirty work. Just so you know, Yen'fay's army will arrive within three days…try to wrap this up before then?"

Excellus does the noblewoman's laugh. Y'know, 'OH-HOHOHOHOHOH' all high-pitched and stuff.

"I suppose the raids in the south have been removed then?" The Commander inquires. "I heard that they had issues with a very small band of rebel raiders."

"The folly of relying on a non-Valmese." Excellus sighs theatrically. "I will never understand why our lord uses such filth."

It's because they're better soldiers than you, you moron. The Commander thought idly. "Where are you headed to next, Sir?"

Excellus examines his nails. "Ah…I want to pay a visit to the Fortress. They should be done mopping up the attackers by now. I want this town cleaned up before I get back. Ta-ta!" He vanishes in a beam of light.

"What a repulsive man." The commander growls. "Still, his information network is not to be taken lightly."

"Eh…I don't know about that." A girl's voice said.

The Valm Commander drew his sword with a flourish. "Who's there?!" He demands.

"Oops…uh…chirp, chirp. Chirpy." The voice said hurriedly.

As in, saying the word 'chirp' instead of mimicking a bird.

The Command lunged at the source of the sound.

Something small darted below his lunge.

"Guards!" The Commander roars as he turns around. "I'm under attack!"

He then felt something slam into his torso, and saw, to his immense disbelief, a petite girl with pure white hair.

"I'm really sorry about this." Kite apologizes as she pushes a second small knife into the commander's body. "But I kinda need you to stop participating in this battle. Oh! Uh… don't worry, the knives are laced with a drug, so you won't die…probably." She seemed really spaced out. "Dad wasn't too sure on the mixture, so…I'm really really sorry!"

The Commander could only hear half of what she said due to the drugs working. He lunges wildly at her with an arm but Kite dances back with practiced speed.

He then saw Kite try to open the window. "Eh?" She fails and exclaims in surprise. "This window doesn't open?"

Is she really an assassin? The Commander can't help but think as he slumped against the wall…just as his guards kick down the door with their weapons drawn.

"Assassin!" The guard yells and the Commander resists the urge to facepalm…not that he could, anyways. "Capture her!"

"Shit." Kite breathes with the childishness in her voice utterly gone. "Plan B, then." She snaps her fingers towards the guards.

The guards are suddenly blown to the ground with a massive blast of wind targeted at their shins and the back of their heads. Those still conscious then could only watch as she snaps her fingers at the window and blow all of the glass panels away.

"Count yourselves lucky I'm only here to help my father." Kite says to the guards, and then a grin spreads over her face. "Later!" She hops through the now pane-less window.

…

[Ground]

…

With their attack largely thwarted, Say'ri gathered the remainder of her men and moved to escape through the northern gate per their plans.

Unfortunately their plans relied on air support keeping the gate clear in the event of it being guarded (which it most definitely would be).

"What do we now?" one of the Myrimdons ask Say'ri. "Without the Ylissean forces, we can't break through those Knights."

"Maybe we should be like the other guys and go out in a blaze of glory." His friend said with a hint of bitterness. "The shitheads."

The rebel forces that broke and fled knew they could not escape from the city, so instead they took up the act of widespread burning and pillaging within the limits of the city. While Say'ri hated the widespread chaos, she had to admit that they helped relieve some of the pressure on her forces…especially as Say'ri's own core forces (from Chon'sin) were largely unhurt.

She had to give credit to the Bulldogs for that one.

"Shitheads or no, they are responsible for luring much of the defenders away from the walls." Say'ri sighs. "My, I'm losing my etiquette."

"We can hunker down until the Boss remembers to break down that gate for us, or we can use a flare to let him know about it." Captain Stephan notes. "It's your call, princess."

Say'ri simply stared at the gate for a while. "Do they look like they're simply standing guard to you?"

Stephan followed Say'ri's gaze. "No, I suppose they're not." He says after watching the guards scramble along the walls against something outside. "I wond-whoa."

A barrage of Thorons tore through the guards on the walls and Stephan saw the shapes of some new soldiers appear on the walls. "That's not a unit I think I'd see around here." Stephan remarks.

"Those…those are Sorcerers." Say'ri breathes. "What are they doing so deep in Valmese territory?"

Ardent followers of Naga = not a whole lot of dabbling with 'dark' magic.

"The only nation that extensively uses Sorcerers in their ranks would be Plegia." Stephan remarks as the Sorcerers hold the walls with their flashy dark magic. "Come to think of it, there was a Plegian force when we first landed…are these the same guys?"

His question was answered…kinda…when the Plegian troops seized control of the gate and forced it open. "Robin?" He peers at the figure strolling through the gate.

Say'ri was peering as well. "Robin was a man?"

"Hey! Ash!" Hawk yells at the top of his lungs. "Let's blow this thing and go home already!"

…

[The Air]

…

"My god, he has some good lungs." Ash shakes his head. "Two, you still with me?"

"Yeah, boss." Condor Two pants. "Shit, he's good."

Ash tosses away the bisected remains of his poleaxe, replacing it with a lance. "Yeah. We're almost through this, just a little more."

Elsewhere, the rest of the still functional Phoenix Squadron begin their attack run, intent on capitalizing their brief moment of not being killed.

"They'll probably start shooting as us when we get close." One of the Phoenix girls pointed out.

And 'they' did. As the Allied air forces closed in on the city's supplies, the airspace was suddenly filled with spells and arrows.

"Thought so." The girl grimaces. "Everyone, give it everything you've got! Don't worry about hitting a mark!"

The Valmese mages and archers on the ground were thus subsequently surprised as the enemy Pegasus Knights accelerated in the face of the interception fire.

"The hell are they trying to do?" One of the mages scowled after the Allied forces made their run. "How do they expect to hit a thing flying that fast?"

"They're flying faster than our arrows." His archer buddy remarked. "That's pretty impressive, I have to say."

They were then quickly dissuaded from their ponderings by the world exploding around them.

…

"I'm amazed we still had all those Force bombs left." Ash grins. "Guess something went right today. Fulcrums, go!"

"Roger!" Fulcrum One replies. "Fan out!"

Unfortunately Ash was stopped from seeing the results of the attack via the Griffon Knight jumping down his throat again…metaphorically speaking.

Using the momentary pause in enemy interception, the four Fulcrum girls spread out to cover the entire supply area and dropped their ordnance on the softest looking targets, the granaries.

"Bombs away!" Fulcrum One declared triumphantly. "Bombs Away!"

"Yeah!" Fulcrum Two cheers! "We got 'em good!" She cheers as the majority of the foodstores for the town is on fire.

Gusts of wind tore into the granaries and scattered their embers to the surrounding buildings, greatly increasing the range of the blaze.

"It's about time." Ash huffs as the Griffon Knight makes his retreat. "That fucker had our number. You ok, Mag?"

Magna's growl sounds slightly pained.

Looks like his wings have hit their limit. Ash shakes his head. When did he get hit? I never even noticed. "Alright, that's that." He sighs. "All units regroup, we'll punch through their lines to the north gate and cover our forces' escape."

…

…

The rebels were able to make their escape aided by the timely appearance of the Plegian detachment and by the shock created through the Valm losing their commander for the engagement.

…And by the fact that the town, due to its inherent density, is starting to burn to the ground.

…

…

[1st Person Camera, Night]

…

…

So.

Let's see.

At the end of the day, the rebel forces lost about 70% of the committed land forces…in the sense that we have around 1500 men of the total 6000ish that we started with.

Our core of Feroxi infantry remained mostly intact, as they were either tasked to Say'ri or base defense.

First off, this was an operational success. We managed to destroy the enemy supplies and deal a major blow to their air power. While we were unable to establish control over the city, given how the civilians willingly joined the fight against Say'ri it's fair to say that that particular objective was never realistic to begin with.

The aggressors from the town slums weren't a substantial enough force to turn the tide despite the sheer amount of property damage they were able to incur.

However, this was a failure in the long run: since we were unable to remove the forces stationed in the city fast enough, the Shepherds are now effectively separated from the rest of our units. Icing on the cake: due to the damage we took, it's entirely likely that we won't be able to deal enough damage through raiding to make Valm care about us.

The city's cavalry had swung north to make a moving barricade between us and the fortress, so going that way is a definite no-no.

Next…our casualties. I don't know who I should be thanking for the fact that we had no fatalities.

Blackbird One has been severely wounded. We're keeping her stabilized, but she needs to be out of the warzone to recover properly.

Blackbird Two and the Gripen squadron fought tooth and nail until they were rescued by a small detachment of Hawk's sorcerers (led by Henry!). They're reasonably ok (mostly just broken bones), and the Gripens will need new mounts. They get props for remembering to detonate the cruise engines when their Pegasi died, though.

The Rafales would've been captured had it not been for Nah's interference. Raf One in particular is also in need of an airlift.

All the rest of the squadron suffered some level of damage, but they can at least fly, so that's good for us.

Stephan didn't lose a man either, but half of his unit is out of the fight.

Seiryu squadron broke and fled, though I don't blame them.

Morgan reports a total loss of everything he wasn't able to safeguard, so everything except for the Phoenix-company specific equipment has been lost.

A little bit of an overstatement, but it's fundamentally correct.

Ergo we're falling back to the captured port city to lick our wounds.

…

So, the damage we dealt.

By our best estimates, we've killed roughly 20% of the enemy garrison through straight combat, and another 10% tops through air strikes…and Hawk's assistance.

Of the enemy air force, we've downed around half of them throughout the day. Given that most of the air to air combat was slow and fairly low-altitude I'll be surprised if we killed even a quarter of that number.

…

I may have been a touch too optimistic to believe that I could win an offensive war with just technology, especially when I opted to handicap the implementation said technology for the sake of appearing fair.

…

What else…

Nino was separated from the rest of her mage squad when they joined in on an offensive to relieve some of the trapped rebel elements. I don't know where she is, and Morgan by then was too busy safeguarding the camp to find out.

Her mage squad itself was encircled and destroyed. Stars was an exception as they were on base defense.

The camp's staff took some light losses. Morgan's quick reaction saved it from being wiped entirely…he also may or may not have also gained his own little circle of girls, judging by how closely the Destroyer Group Six girls are latching onto him.

Nah ended up having to fight, too, despite us holding her in reserve for anti-Risen ops.

…well, I'm thankful for her aggression. She was apparently instrumental in slowing if not stopping a huge chunk of the enemy cavalry detachment.

…

SMACK and we're on the ground.

"Yo." Hawk says cheerfully. "You're not sulking, are ya?"

Yes I am. "I'm not…but what are you doing here?" upsy-daisy...he's got a pretty strong arm.

"Well, I came to see how you're doing." Hawk grins. "The fight didn't go too well, did it?"

I chuckle and shake my head. "That's putting it very mildly. It sucks being on the losing side of an information war."

"So you found a spy?" Hawk asks seriously.

I…I'm still thrown off by his sudden mood swings. "No, but I don't have any other justification for how badly we did." I feel like we would've at least been able to strike at the enemy's headquarters.

"I think it's called 'you had a ninth of the men you needed', buddy." Hawk grins again. "It takes three times the defender's manpower to take down a wall, y'know?"

"Yeah, yeah…" I sigh. "Why did you help us?" How did you find us, even?

His grin doesn't move. "Because I could? You're overthinking it, man. For the record, I don't think any of your men were spies." He adds in a low tone.

Really now. "Why do you say that?"

"Well…Excellus the bastard is very good and finding opportunities created by others. He's not quite as good when it comes to his own efforts." Hawk shakes his head. "He's the perfect parasite, if you will."

…who's Excellus again? The incompetent Anti-Robin?

Yeah.

Parasite, huh…well, parasite or no he handed our asses to us in a doggy bag. Gotta respect that at the very least…though I wonder what he's parasiting off of?

"What do you plan to do now?" Hawk asks. "I have the manpower to do a night strike if you need it."

…why is he being helpful again?

"We're a raiding force, not a fixing one." I reply. "I need to get my injured home."

"Shame. If you made a night attack you'll win for sure." Hawk…I think he's joking. It's hard to tell.

"Boss, we're ready to move out." Morgan says…while trying to detangle Raiden Senior from his arm. It's quite cute, actually.

"Wish I was that successful at that age." Hawk mutters. "I'll be seeing to my men; later, Ash."

"Alright." I pet Raiden Senior's oddly fluffy chestnut hair. "Let's go. Take care that the wagons aren't noticed."

Morgan gets to go first. We think he's embarrassed about…what would this situation be? He just accidentally found a girlfriend?

He accidentally found four girlfriends, by the sound of it.

…

[Next Day]

…

"Boss." Nah comes up to me before we broke camp in the morning. "I have a question."

I nod for her to continue.

"That is, it's less of a question and more of a comment." She backpedals. "Er, it's two comments, actually…"

She takes a deep breath. "Point one: Tiki followed us."

…

She what?

"Well, uh…" Nah turned…and yeah, that's definitely Tiki. Hi Tiki. Stop hiding behind that tiny tree. You're a bigger girl than that.

I'm confused. "Ok, one: Why? Two: how did you get all the way out here without us noticing?"

"I did not follow the army at the time of departure." Tiki says. "I arrived here this aftern-wait, that's not important."

I imagine she would have a much greater degree of control of her manakete powers than Nowi or Nah, so travelling at high speeds would be easy for her.

The risk of going berserk notwithstanding…

"The important matter is: the town is under siege."

…it's just one thing after another, isn't it? Shit. "Who's doing the sieging?"

"Valm." Tiki replies…I think she wanted to add 'who did you think it was?' at the end. "The army of General Cervantes is sitting at your doorstep, so to speak."

Double shit. I wondered where he was.

That being said, I don't think my town will fall that quickly, and even if it does my…Ylisse's, assets are not at risk. Ninya's too smart for that.

"Ok, that sucks. What's the other message?" I ask Nah. Tiki is mildly offended by our dismissiveness.

"Well, uh…" Nah twiddles her thumbs. "I sensed Manaketes...they're approaching Steiger City."

"And a dark force is approaching Chrom's party." Tiki adds.

How does she know this?

…it's just one thing after another, isn't it…"Let me guess…"

Nah nods shyly. "They're Risen."

…

I…I cannot communicate the URGE I have to just let those Risen Manaketes sack the city. I know it's just because I'm bitter from losing a siege, but…

"UUUUGH." I bury my hands in my face. Wait, no, other way around. "Son of a fuck. Ok. Yo, Raiden Junior!" She was passing by.

"Eep!" The little girl jumps at my roaring. "Y-y-y-y-y-yes?!"

"Get me Morgan, Stephan, and Say'ri."

She bows and scampers off.

"Boss?" Nah asks hesitantly.

Hm.

I wonder what that dark force is…Robin? But I feel like Tiki should know Robin well enough for her to avoid showing up as a false positive, though.

…then again, maybe the fact that this Robin is more Grima-aligned has something to do with it…

…Eh. No point guessworking. I just need to be careful when the time comes.

…

The crew is gathered, plus Hawk and Kite.

Then let's not waste time. "Nah has informed me that Risen Manaketes are on their way to Steiger City."

"Good." Stephan and Say'ri said as one, earning them dirty looks from Tiki and Nah.

"Well…yeah." I nod, earning me dirty looks from them as well. "That being said, having Risen Manaketes wandering around would be bad for us. It would be bad for Chrom's party, too."

"Ah…that's what this is about." Hawk mutters. I don't know if he actually gets it or not, to be honest.

"So…we're going to intercept those Manaketes?" Nah asks hopefully.

"Preferably before they can reach the town, yes." I nod. "Also, there is the matter of our landing point currently at risk from a Valm counterattack."

"I'll head back to the town with the men." Stephan says assuredly. "I don't think we'll be much good against a Manakete, especially after seeing what little Nah can do."

Nah bows a little.

"In that case," Hawk speaks up…going by the glares shot at him, nobody really trusts him. "Kite will take my forces and reinforce your town."

"Really?" Say'ri asks. "I had thought that Plegia did not have good relations with its neighbors."

"Plegia doesn't. I do." Hawk grins.

Interesting choice of words.

To be honest I don't trust him either, especially since he bailed on us way back when we picked up Morgan, but at the moment I don't have the time to be picky.

"You plan to join the attack force, right?" Hawk grins at me. "I'm in."

"Yeah. We're going to take down the Risen Manaketes and swing around to assist Chrom." I nod. "Robin has a radio, so we'll be able to establish contact by following their movements."

"I see…so that's why you called us." Say'ri…well, I guess saying 'she finally gets it' is wrong. Hawk's just sharp. "I'll follow the attack group."

Nah nods.

"I cannot stand by." Tiki says. I guess she's coming with us.

Morgan, interestingly, was tormented for a while. "I'll go with you as well." He said finally. "I don't know if you know about this, but for the past month I've been playing with Quartermaster Ninya a lot."

Cue a gasp from the bushes.

Sounded like Raiden Senior getting her dreams crushed or something.

Morgan just rolls his eyes. "I believe that she can handle the defense of the city impeccably, and so I should not be worried."

But you are worried, and that's adorable.

"Kite will be there too, and she's a better tactician than you are, Morgan." Hawk laughs. "So calm your, er. Y'know."

'Calm your tits' doesn't make a lot of sense in this situation, yeah.

Kite tosses her short silvery hair in a very Severa-esque motion, and Morgan just looks annoyed.

"You'll be walking?" Hawk suddenly asks me out of the blue.

"Huh? Uh…yeah; Magna's wings are punctured, so I'm letting him go back to heal as well." If his wings don't heal correctly it will affect his flying later.

Say'ri frowns. "I must admit I've never seen you engage in hand to hand combat apart from practice; will you be alright?"

"I have a bag of tricks or two." I wink. "Won't be a problem."

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

Too many theatres…I need to make a map next time.