Chapter 12: Primo Victoria

Alnus Castrum, Alnus Hill, Falmart

0600 hours

Diablo El Caesar awoke to the scrambling of feet and shouts. He had been commanding the garrison for weeks, barricading and obstructing the chokepoint now and every couple of days, a group of small metal beasts on leashes would poke through the Gate. The soldiers scoffed at the little critters, as they crawled like snails and fled when the men charged them down. They would always emerge from the darkness of the Gate, pulling black cylindrical leashes, and rotate their little eyes. Sometimes, their backs would open and close or their metal arms would reach out and grab at the ground. However, spears and arrows would bounce off them when struck, leaving the beasts unharmed. Day by day, the Legionaries got used to the appearance of the metal animals, rushing to the entrance to see them off with swords and shields.

Diablo swung his feet to the ground and sat up just as the garrison legate ran in.

" Your Grace, a message from the otherworld," the man coughed up as he bent over panting, hand outstretched with a white envelope.

The emperor's son could only answer with a "huh?"

The legate finally caught his breath, " your Grace, one of the metal beasts came forward and dropped this off."

The young man picked up the letter before opening it and reading. Surprisingly, the letter was written in their language.

We are the United Nations of Earth, of which you attacked in an undeclared and unprovoked fashion. We demand you surrender the perpetrator who commanded the attack on the 26th of July, 201X. If we are denied, a state of war will be declared between our nations. You have one week to reply. The drone will return to take your message.

Diablo had read the letter out loud, the legate interrupting with a guffaw when the arrest of the Emperor came up.

" HA, what? Will they roll over us with an army of metal snails? What a joke," the Legate just kept laughing.

The other man had a complicated face as he contemplated this threat. It was true that such a warning without any impressive escort should be scoffed at, but Diablo just pictured the faces of horror that plagued the returned soldiers. Those now retired Legionaries had come back, terrified at loud noises and constantly twitching in fear. Some were stuck in constant confusion and could never sleep, screaming with an air of pure and utter helplessness and panic as they woke up upon closing their eyes.

The legate just strolled out of the tent laughing, finishing the conversation with an "I'll take care of it."

Diablo then heard the man shout commands.

" OI, YOU ON THE BALLISTA! WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE 30 DENARII?"

Stepping out of the tent, the leader of the garrison watched as the siege weapon turned to point at the metal construct. The beast saw the weapon facing it and tried to flee, getting caught up on its own leash.

A loud "TWANG" sounded out, the massive projectile slammed into the animal, impaling it to the ground. Cheers erupted from the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle, the morale among the men reaching an all-time high as they sneered at the deceased enemy. Diablo could not help but smile at the soldiers' antics as he looked over at the broken remains, his concerns disappearing with the sparks.

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UN HQ, Rubkona Direct Combat Zone, Bentiu Province, South Sudan

"MOTHERFUCKER!"

The curse echoed through the room, causing the whole room to turn towards the noise. A drone operator, an American intelligence technician, stood from her seat. She threw her headset onto the table, still cursing.

A captain stepped forward trying to calm her. She calmed and told him about the situation.

" Sir, they destroyed the drone with a ballista after receiving the message."

This was brought further up the ranks. With this violent response, the course of action by the coalition forces would be an armoured vanguard.

Four T-72B3 would lead, each modified with full applique armour sets and with UDP T05BV-1 RWS turrets installed with NSVT heavy machine guns. Another two BMPT-72 Terminators would be partnered each with the two pairs, providing further anti-infantry support. Behind the armour pieces would be the Mongolian contingent in BTR-60PBs, ready to dismount upon exiting the Gate. Russian ZSU-23-4 Shilkas would be mixed into these ranks in preparation for enemy wyvern attacks, with the remainder of the 19th Motostrelki would be in their BTR-82A and BMP-2s. Canadian LAV 6.0s, Indians in BMP-2 " Sarath", and Chinese WZ-551s followed after with a second mobility spearhead formed by Indian T-72 Ajeya MBTs. Other lightly armoured and unarmoured vehicles like trucks and armoured cars would pull up the rear, which put the Japanese in the far back as armed protection for logistics. Each vehicle had extra spotlights to traverse the interior of the Gate, as the pitch darkness did not allow night vision devices to operate, with the tanks having large external floodlights installed onto their turrets.

A time was chosen quickly, as the units organized for the assault. At 1500 hours, the T-72B3s would head out into the black.

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Alnus Castrum, Alnus Hill, Falmart

0324 hours

The emperor's second son was once again awoken by scrambling feet, shouts, and weapons clanging together. Torchlight lit up the exterior of the tent walls, and yet, there was an eerie white light that also bounced off the fabric. Diablo rubbed at his eyes as he swung his legs around to stand. The familiar clinking of armour outside meant that the legate was on his way.

Diablo was finished tying his armour plates together just as the legate dashed in, once again panting after he ran across the castrum.

" What is it now?" the 20-year-old asked, annoyed that his sleep was once again interrupted. He continued to put on his equipment.

" They have come."

Rolling his eyes, he asked again, " Who? The Emperor?"

Still panting, the legate just shook his hands in denial as he breathed.

" Your Grace… the enemy."

" Oh." This got Diablo to stop.

Suddenly a loud shout could be heard from outside. An extremely weird sounding voice could be heard speaking their language from inside the tent, the person sounded like it was muffled yet could still be projected across the entire Alnus hill area.

" THIS IS THE UNITED NATIONS FORCES, SURRENDER AND DROP YOUR WEAPONS IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON!"

The message continued to repeat itself.

Diablo ran from the tent to the frontline, the already winded legate struggling to keep up. What he saw scared him to his very core.

Four suns lit up the wooden barricades, their unfamiliar white light causing uneasiness to men who only knew of warm yellow sunlight and the man-made orange of fire. And yet, that did not shock him. Behind blinding almost painful streams of light, Diablo could just make out the enemy. Four steel elephants laid out in front of the gate, with more lights beaming out from behind them.

They were unlike the towering war elephants of the far West kingdoms. These elephants had the same legs made of wheels as the small snails that poked through the gate before. Those Western beasts did not have snouts that pointed straight or crawled on the ground. Nor were they so stout and short nor did they growled constantly.

[ Nor do they speak!]

He could hear the repeated warnings coming from the steel elephants, echoing in the silence of the legionary Corp and bouncing around in his skull. The words knocked any thoughts out of his head as his eyes glazed over at the sight of pure military power.

The legate looked over to Diablo, only to see a deer in headlights. Knowing that the man won't be able to make any quick decisions and that their standing orders were to hold the enemy back here, he decided to act.

Waiting for a pause in the announcements, he shouted out in the deafening lull, getting the attention of the Legionaries. All Saderan forces surrounding the Gate easily heard him, turning to see the legate lit up by torchlight. The man, seeing he finally regained control of his troops, shot his arm into the air and lowered it with a slapping motion.

A bugler saw this and blew his horn, the blaring raising the men's spirits and informing them to engage.

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Alexei Koptsov did not see the legate waving on the attack through his commander's sight, but he barely heard the horn over the engine. Spinning his sight to face the horn, he watched in fascination as a couple of tunic wearing idiots ran around readying a ballista aimed at his tank.

He quickly spoke through his intercom.

" Gunner, target AT weapon battery, 2 o'clock, 2-2-3 metres, hold fire."

" YES, COMMANDER." was his reply. Vasily, the gunner, spun the turret to the right.

The ballista bolt left the weapon just as the gun started shifting, the wooden shaft traveling the distance and shattering against the steel.

"Shots fired," echoed through the comms in Russian, being translated into the different languages to the respective commanders. Seconds passed as engagement commands passed back through the lower ranks. Nodding his head, as his platoon leader gave the command to fire on his mark, he repeated the commands to Vasily.

" Gunner, fire on my command."

Another excited " YES, COMMANDER," replied to him.

"FIRE!"

All hell broke loose upon the Saderan forces.

The four 125mm cannons fired in unison, each shell destroying a heavy siege engine and their crew. Metal crunched and wood splintered as the tanks moved forward away from the gate, rolling over the still impaled drone and onto the wood spikes, none of which could halt the multi-ton vehicles. Coaxial 7.62mm PKMTs and commander controlled 12.7mm NSVT began their barrages, bursts cutting through the assembled legionaries. Their main cannons and the BMPT's autocannons joined in, devastating the rank with high explosives.

And yet, the legionaries charged. It will never be known why the 10,000 men reacted to such a massive otherworldly power with further aggressive action, but they did what they did. Rushing forward group by group, each one gathering further courage as more and more men ran forward. Their shields raised and pilums up, the ancient soldiers let loose their javelins, before drawing their gladius while dashing at the T-72B3s.

Alexei was shocked. Fired upon by MBTs would cause even modern forces to retreat or at least pull back to reorganize. These obsolete soldiers just charged, disregarding the fate that laid before them.

" VASILY, DON'T STOP! THEY MUST NOT PASS US!"

The armoured behemoths only had just over a minute to halt the human wave to allow the friendly infantry behind them to disembark from their APCs safely. They failed.

The legionaries, taking heavy casualties, climbed onto the T-72s and BMPTs, stabbing at the hull and turret in a vain attempt to hurt the steel. The Russian crews had no choice, but to keep driving further into the castrum, turning their guns on each other to clean the bodies off their brethren with 7.62. The BTR-60PBs soon got overrun as well, the Mongolians having massive issues as they could not fire on each over to kill the men on top of the vehicles without causing actual damage to each over. The men and women inserted their small arms into the firing slots in the hull, gunning down any legionaries they could see, listening to the cacophony of metal blades clash on welded steel. The Shilkas halted on the sides of the gate, trying to be inconspicuous to protect their sensitive radar equipment, allowing the rest of the infantry and armour to pass through. The rest of the UN forces were relatively unharassed, allowing Canadian, Indian, and Chinese infantry to dismount and assist their trapped colleagues. The multi-national army formed a firing line, single and burst fire of 5.56mm and 5.8mm rounds began downing the legionaries on the BTR-60s, freeing the Mongols to rush out with their AKMs to join the line. The second vanguard of Indian Ajeyas sped up, rolling through the holes the infantry parted to allow them through. The T-72s caught up with the Russians, assisting in cleaning them of clinging parasites.

By this time, the Russians had run out of 7.62 and 12.7 ammunition, their main guns firing intermittently. With the advancing infantry lines and arriving Indian armour, the 10,000 strong army of ancient battle-hardened legionaries evaporated. As the battle wound down, the cries of the wounded filled the air, the dying too tired to cry out in death.

Alexei twisted the hatch handle and pushed up onto the metal, needing further strength to push aside the still body that laid on top of the hatch. He lifted himself out of the tank as the dead Saderan rolled off and fell to the ground. Looking around, he loosed a breath heavily, relieved that the combat was finished. He watched as the ground-pounders ran around, looking for survivors and clearing the tents by flashlight. The wooden ramparts that overlooked the hill they sat on, were now manned by UN forces.

As his eyes swept through the area, Vasily also popped his hatch open, before hauling his heavy body out.

" Anything interesting, sir?"

" Just death," he answered in a monotone voice.

The gunner leaned over, looking past the edge of the tank at the pile of bodies that settled beside the vehicle.

" Poor bastards," the younger man commented, shaking his head.

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So the forces have crossed over. Hopefully, this chapter lived up to expectations. Remember to write a review, good or bad, and see you again next week.