March 14th, 2016 of the Gregorian calendar
The tanks in formation rushed forward at full speed, rivaling the fastest horses on the continent towards a hill now barley a klick away. The bombardment had since this time stopped and Smith couldn't believe anything could survive a hell storm like that but this was the Saderans, they had the resilience of cockroaches with the stubbornness of honey badgers. The tank battalion were to spearhead the assault against the forward Saderan lines, leading the way for the APCs to follow behind. With most of the forces in Marais destroyed, this would be the last engagement before the capital was to be stormed.
"You ready Frank?" He asked his gunner, "As I'll ever be sir." The later peaking through his gunsight for any targets. "Prepare to engage!" Ordered their commander Dawson, who had a bone to pick with the Saderans as he had relatives that had been killed during the battle of New York. The tanks climbed the hillside side and through his viewports could see rows of trenches filled with legionnaire who were shitting themselves seeing dozens of armored beasts speeding towards them. "Rip those rats to shreds!!" Shouted Dawson before the enemy positions were saturated with high-explosive shells, those unfortunate to be the victims of this volley were turned into red mist.
They tried firing their few cannons that hadn't been destroyed but this only really alerted the tanks to their positions. One fired at Smith's tank at around a mile away, successfully connecting but harmlessly bouncing off. In anger the tank turned it's turret to it's left before answering back with a shot, the consequence being that the crew was vaporized in a fiery explosion. As they reached half a mile away from enemy positions, the M2 browning opened up to rain hundreds of rounds at the troops attempting to flee. Smith could feel the tank bounce as it flew over the trenches, little more then tiny bumps at this point.
Some of the APCs behind them began to let out the Infantry who then rushed to secure the trench system and deal with surrendering Saderans while the rest of the battalion would continue on to get back onto the Appia highway as to link up with the main thrust towards the Indarra bridge over the river Santua. While there was ten bridges in total crossing the river, only two were able to withstand the weight of the Abrams and the Santua itself couldn't be forded as it was too deep. The other bridge had been destroyed and it was a race to get to the Indarra bridge before it too was demolished.
Then Dawson ordered full speed and the tanks then flew down the plains in a northeastern direction. "Attention companies Alpha and Bravo, enemy calvary are covering the retreat of Saderan infantry. Push forward and crush them!" Dawson's voice was filled with acid that matched his hatred. Smith knew damn well that those who partook in the attack were all dead or captured so non of these poor souls were all unwilling subjects of his anger into lash out upon, but this was war, and in war things are messy.
In the distance, dust could be seen rising as the calvary units were heading their way. These were a mix of regular calvary and centaurs equipped with nothing that could hurt them in anyway, even ramming them would do nothing too serious. "Loader, load canister." He ordered, the Hispanic quickly and efficiently shoved a shell into the chamber before also preparing yet another ammo box for the coaxial. "Open fire!" At a mile, the Saderans were utterly defenseless as horses tripped over ones that had been cut down, rapidly spreading chaos in the hoard. Smith fired burst after burst from his remote controlled MG, being careful as not not overheat the weapon.
The swarm of calvary very quickly turned the other way around in nothing short of a stampede, desperately trying to escape the pounding they were receiving from the metal monsters hundreds of yards away. "Don't let those bastards get away!" "But sir, we're starting to run low on ammunition. They won't be much of a threat if we call air support." Answered a tanker over the comms. He was indeed right, half of their ammo storage for the main cannon was already gone and shooting at retreating combatants wouldn't be as effective as say destroying a stronghold so Dawson gave in. "All units, cease fire. Continue towards the bridge."
Later at the White house...
The president was delighted at the news, the Ugarian offensive had moved fifty-six miles in just one day and had annihilated about half of the entire forces defending the plains. The heavy artillery barrage and unrelenting carpet bombings had made large groupings suicidal and the enemy were hastily retreating in wagons as fast as possible but air power had turned many of these caravans into deathtraps. The Indarra bridge that crossed the Santua had been captured with little resistance, eliminating the last natural barrier between the US army and the capital city.
But now the army faced a new problem: POWs. Many had simply surrendered and now had to stay in terrible conditions in the largest camp called Albany. The prison had been build by a mixture of US army engineers, payed local labor, and even POWs themselves who would reside there six months ago. It could accommodate twenty-thousand but now was containing forty-five thousand. He quickly told Kowalski to build as many camps as possible to house them as it not bring them over into the US, the already overcrowded prison system unable to deal with these prisoners and to protect against any disease they could be carrying.
Project Zetas was having a slow start but new things were being discovered as magic and science melted together. The general public of course knew nothing of it and wouldn't until it was completed. It'd revolutionize travel forever, no need, for cars, planes, ships, or trains if you could simply walk through a portal but that'd be a long ways ahead in the future, long past his lifetime. Once his term ended he could spend the rest of his days in solitude and peace, let someone else deal with the burden of being the most influential person in the world. He chuckled ever so slightly to himself, "What a life it's been..."
Mars 14th, 688 of the Imperial calendar
Zorzal was pissed, pissed beyond all words. "Gods damn it all!" He roared as he slammed the table. "The Indarra bridge was to be destroyed!!" Gimlet forced out a response. "My lord, the mages fled the scene before the enemy even showed up. In fact most of the mages on the front have either deserted like cowards or are dead." But that only angered him further. "Of course they did! They'd rather play tricks then to actually fight for our country." His mood was very dangerous and one wrong move would have his subordinates killed, hell a small part of him wanted them to give him an excuse.
The grand defenses he envisioned were slowly being deteriorated by hunger and low morale, more time was being used to keep troops inside the city more then preparing for an attack. The few bosses of the Serpens districts remaining were acting up and some began to attack patrols. Only about twelve soldiers were killed but he couldn't afford losing valuable men so did the only logical thing left to do, fight them. He declared a state of emergency in the district and anyone not indoors would be considered an spy and imprisoned so that the army could focus on the task at hand.
He ordered what civis corpus were in training and the army of Hardy's followers to all head towards the capital. "I guess it cant be helped. But reinforcements will help change the tide in our favor." He looked to his subordinates and could tell instantly they were hiding something. "What is it you monkeys?" "My lord..." Mudra swallowed the lump in his throat. "The reinforcements have turned back. Air attacks have proved too much for them to bare." The young emperor popped off like a match, fuming with anger.
"THAT WAS AN ORDER!!! MY WORD IS ABSOLUTE!!!" His face turned red in rage, "Im surrounded by cowards! Traitors! Turncoats! The Imperial army has failed not only me, but the Saderan people. They're nothing more then mules." "But then Demos who at this point stayed quiet spoke, "My lord, I upmost protest the slandering of the Imperial army!" Zorzal was shocked that he had dared to speak back to him like that. "Do you know who your speaking too?!! You dare to snap back at your emperor!" "Yes I do! They have fought against impossible odds while you rant here!" Gimlet and Mudra , his two most loyal followers looked the old man with disgust in their eyes. "In fact I was the one who ordered them to fall back! Defending Sadera will only slow the inevitable."
He was livid, his own general was actually against him. "Is that so?" Zorzal began, just barley keeping his composure, "Then give me a reason why I shouldn't have you executed." The intelligent general already had an answer to shoot. "My lord, to be quite frank everyone below you is a yes-man. They tell you lies and tell you the war can be won by honor and numbers alone. Swallowing our pride and excepting their terms was the best option we had to buy time. Yes it would be humiliating but hundred of thousands of soldiers wouldn't have been killed or captured, we could focus on modernizing our army while the enemy grew complacent. Once we had enough manpower and materials, we could've orchestrated an uprising in the lost territory before declaring war. It would have been bloody but we'd have a chance at the very least."
The emperor couldn't believe that Demos had the guts to not only argue but to question his authority, he knew that Demos was highly loyal to his father and could at any moment turn on him. Zorzal would've had him in chains or executed before but his tactical brilliance at the time surpassed his loyalties but now, something had to be done. "This session is over. Now get out of my sight!" Demos and Mudra swiftly left but Gimlet lingered. "Are you disobeying me as well?" The thin man shock his head.
"Absolutely not my lord." He said, "That old man is clearly a traitor to the empire!" 'At least there's one person not plotting against me.' He thought as he let out a sigh. "Indeed, but he one of the most gifted men in my army and has allowed it to slow their advances up to this point. Now what shall do with him?" He saw the head of the Oprichnina grin from ear to ear. "It's quite simply my lord. He has directly gone against your orders and compromised the defense of the capital. Demos deserves death!" The emperor was filled with despair as his empire was crumbling, his army nonexistent, economically destroyed, city after city falling to rebels, and now even his inner circle plotting against him.
"Before we do that, I want you to find any possible evidence of him collaborating with the enemy. I don't want to instigate mutiny amongst our ranks." General Demos was in charge of the Lupas legionnaires, specialized soldiers who despite losing two-thirds of their number in the Dumas, had over five thousand in Sadera and were deeply loyal to him. "Consider it done, he'll be taken care of with any trouble." "I'll take you for your word." And with that, Gimlet left and Zorzal thought of a new speech he could give his men.
