Saeed I
Lieutenant General Abd Fattah Saeed is the current commander of the North Africa Defense Pact's air wing. My impression of him when I step into his office in Alexandria is of a veritable mountain of a man, with a broad barrel chest and a bushy grey beard. He seems to purposely use his prosthetic arm to shake my hand as he sits me down for the interview.
A: So, I'd imagine you're here to ask me about the Battle of Cairo.
Q: Well, yes. It's often regarded as a crucial battle in the African theater of the war.
A: That it was. I feel like a lot of people like to overlook Africa in favor of China and the other 'big places'. They seem to forget that when the Lizards first landed, they hit this continent the hardest. Four landings, with no ships shot down. That meant that within twenty four hours, there were three and a half million of those scaly devils in Africa. Nearly a million of them landed in the desert near Cairo alone.
Saeed lights a cigarillo, taking a puff. Smoke wafts past his lips, giving him an almost fearsome appearance.
That's the sort of numbers we'd only seen in the Second World War. The Germans and Italians sent less than a third of that number into my country, and that was spread out across a rather broad front. This force, however, was all concentrated in a fairly small area, and right outside the capital. And there was no British Army to help us.
Q: That still didn't stop you from preventing a complete rout.
A: We were the only ones who did. Mogadishu and Zanzibar both fell in six hours. Johannesburg fell in seventeen. We, on the other hand, managed to keep those bastards from cross the Nile for two days. We'd prepared for an invasion from the desert, you see. Mines, barbed wire, missile batteries... I was one of the pilots in the air when they came down. I have to say, their killercraft, while impressive in design, couldn't make up for the ineptitude of their pilots. They made easy pickings. I shot down three during the first day.
Q: Then how were the Race able to gain air superiority at first?
A: Numbers. Their aircraft outnumbered ours three to one. Six to one, if you consider the fact that our forces were spread out across the country. You see, that's the main advantage the Lizards had over us: logistics and numbers. Our jets were as good as theirs, and our crews' skills made up for the slight edge their tanks had, but there was simply too many of them.
So, we pulled back to Alexandria in a fighting retreat, then regrouped for a counteroffensive. The Lizards didn't chase us there; they were too busy trying to cement their hold over Cairo. From what I heard, the guerilla fighting was intense. Civilians swarming isolated troopmales and beating them to death, children distracting landcruiser crews long enough for the adults to put satchel charges...
Q: Where did they get satchel charges?
A: There were many military families who'd been taught a few tricks, in case they were caught behind enemy lines. How to make Molotov cocktails and pressure cooker bombs, for example. Not to mention there were still some active terrorist cells...
Q: That must've felt strange.
A: No. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more, and no less. Just because they were blowing up Lizards instead of civilians for the time being did not suddenly make them our friends.
Anyway, back to the counteroffensive. People like to call the whole thing the Battle of Cairo, but it felt more like the Second Battle. The first was when they drove us out of the city. That was a loss. A manageable one, but a loss nevertheless. It damaged morale, seeing those ships towering over our homes, and knowing that they were spreading their attention along the Nile like some cancer...
Saeed closes his eyes, thinking for a moment.
This was not just a matter of morale for Egypt, but for the world. Mumbai had fallen by then. Shanghai was still a nightmare of urban warfare. The Russians still had yet to smash into the forces in Mongolia. Half of Somalia was under the Lizards' control, and South Africa was scrambling to try and liberate their capital. Sure, the Americans and Russians had shot down the attempts to land in their own soil, but that was of little comfort to us. We needed to win at Cairo, to show that it wasn't just the Americans and Russians who could win against these invaders.
Q: And so, the counterattack was launched.
A: It took six days to gather our forces from the south. The other Arab League countries were too busy helping Iran with the invasion in Tehran to help us, save for Jordan and Lebanon. Thankfully, we still had our communications up, so we were able to coordinate with them, as well as NATO. There was an American CBG near Cyprus, which would help immensely with the air wing.
The biggest surprise was when Israel offered their aid. I'm sure you're aware of the tensions that were around before then. If the enemy had been anyone else, I'm sure we would've refused. But today, it wasn't Egyptians and Israelis and Jordanians. It was humans against invaders from the stars.
I remember the evening before the attack, when I made my prayers facing Mecca. I prayed for the sake of my country, and my family. I prayed for our pilots.
Then, after a moment, I prayed for the Israelis as well.
And so, we launched our attack at the stroke of midnight. I flew out with the first wave, accompanied by four hundred other Egyptian fighters and bombers. Our ground forces followed behind us, while the second wave of aircraft prepared to give them backup.
The Americans and other NATO aircraft joined with us shortly after, thirty miles north of Cairo, then the Israelis and Jordanians came along as well. Altogether, there was nearly nine hundred of us, bearing down on the Lizards' asses.
Q: What was the air battle like?
A: The Lizards detected us, and flew out to try and prevent our assault. This time, however, we outnumbered them by a half. Their pilots were disorganized, horribly disciplined; it was easy to break their air fleet into smaller parts and take them out. Twenty or so managed to limp back to Cairo, and we'd lost only eighty of our own.
We went for their starships, first. We didn't want them to be able to retreat, especially after the indignity they had laid upon us. The American ground attack craft took care of two starships, then our bombers took out the rest. The rest of our forces bombed the targets on the ground. Armor columns, prefabricated bunkers, and so on. I must admit, their SAMs are lethal; we lost nearly sixty aircraft to them. We made sure to destroy them next.
By this time, we were low on ammunition. So, we circled back, just in time for the second wave to come in, the ground force following shortly behind.
The Lizards were in complete disarray, thanks to our first wave. Combined with the fact that our ground forces numbered half a million, and... well, I'm sure the textbooks will tell you the rest.
There were only ninety thousand of them left when they surrendered. The Americans took charge of those. I didn't complain; I was just happy to see my city liberated. My, the festivities we held amongst the wreckage.
He pauses, then pulls out a familiar photo. It shows a group of Egyptian soldiers posing in front of a destroyed killercraft, smiles on their tired and dirty faces. In the background, the Great Pyramid of Giza can be seen.
Did you know I was actually in this picture? You can see me at the edge, with the sunglasses. I still remember that moment, when the Israeli pilot took the photo. I was... euphoric. Yes, that's the right word. The invaders had come, and they had taken my city, but I had taken it right back from them. We'd shown the world that even the smaller countries could fight back and win, that the invaders were not unbeatable.
I repeated that to myself during darker times in this war.
-/-\-
Front Page of Reddit: November 25th, 2020
(200k) Cairo has been successfully liberated, US and Egyptian military sources claim. [cnn]
Posted to /r/worldnews two hours ago - 11000 comments
(120k) The smiles of winners. Egyptian and Israeli pilots celebrating in front of crashed killercraft near Great Pyramid. [imgur]
Posted to /r/pics forty-five minutes ago - 298 comments
(80k) "We will die before we surrender." Iranian President Gilani urges civilians to take up arms against the Race, while giving a broadcast from the provisional capital in Isfahan. [bbc]
Posted to /r/invasionnews three hours ago - 9034 comments
(100k) My sister lives in South Africa, and just texted me this picture of a landcruiser going down her street. Her house's in Mokopone. I think they're in bigger trouble than the news is saying. [imgur]
Posted to /r/southafrica one hour ago - 4020 comments
(40k) TFW you come all the way to Earth in order to start a land war with Asia [imgur]
Posted to /r/dankmemes three hours ago - 122 comments
(70k) Dude in the occupied part of Mumbai just posted a video of the Lizards giving a crippled kid crutches. No idea how to feel about this. [youtube]
Posted to /r/videos six hours ago - 13129 comments
(90k)[NSFL] Brazilian police officers lynching a captured Hallessi. [youtube]
Posted to /r/invasion ten hours ago - 2291 comments
(180k) 30000 US troops have arrived to help defend Sao Paulo, Brazilian Prime Minster claims. [cnn]
Posted to /r/worldnews thirteen hours ago - 19920 comments
(300k) Chinese bombers taking out Race starship in Shanghai. [youtube]
Posted to /r/videos one day ago - 49020 comments
(50k) Space clay no want play [imgur]
Posted to /r/polandball one day ago - 201 comments
(110k) Is anyone else kinda confused by all the reports coming from occupied territory? It's like the Race actually give a shit about civilians. [self]
Posted to /r/invasion one day ago - 23918 comments
(235k) "We will give them no quarter." Russian forces pursuing Race forces in Northern Mongolia. [russiantimes]
Posted to /r/worldnews one day ago - 20014 comments
(31k) How it feels when you want to make anime shitposts, but everyone's just talking about the alien invasion. [gif]
Posted to /r/reactiongifs two days ago - 320 comments
(40k) CAIRO VICTORY UPVOTE PARTY! TO THE TOP! [self]
Posted to /r/egypt twenty minutes ago - 134 comments
(143k) Some kid in Ulaan Baatar has been taking selfies with Lizard troops. Here's the album he just posted. [imgur]
Posted to /r/invasion one day ago - 19484 comments
(87k) When everyone's talking about the Race but you worried as hell about the big warship coming in. [gif]
Posted to /r/dankmemes two days ago - 2901 comments
(130k) Here's a pretty kitty to keep your mind off things! [ ]
Posted to /r/awww three days ago - 1034 comments
(240k) Indian Army has retreated from Mumbai to regroup. City is now fully under Race control. [newyorktimes]
Posted to /r/worldnews one hour ago - 11103 comments
(141k) Fuck the Race. Fuck the Rabotevs. If this gets 100k upvotes, the sub will become Hallessi-themed. [imgur]
Posted to /r/circlejerk three days ago - 1903 comments
(30k) Captured Race equipment currently under study. [cnn]
Posted to /r/invasionnews one hour ago - 103 comments
(190k) How Atvar must be feeling right now. [img]
Posted to /r/lizardmemes one day ago - 1930 comments
(400k) JOHANNESBURG HAS OFFICIALLY FALLEN. GOVERNMENT HAS MOVED TO CAPETOWN. [bbc]
Posted to /r/invasionnews six days ago - 110494 comments
(20k) Bad Luck Race [imgur]
Posted to /r/adviceanimals four days ago - 2019 comments
(125k) My brother's in the US Navy. Here's him posing with a piece of starship they dredged up two hundred miles offshore. [img]
Posted to /r/pics two days ago - 4910 comments
(600k) Official Landings Megathread [self]
Posted to /r/worldnews seven days ago - 1381088 comments
-/-\-
From the Journal of Shistvan, dated November 28th, 2020
I hate this planet.
Half the time, whenever I have time to think about something that isn't combat on this Emperor-forsaken world, I feel like I'm in a dream. No, dreams are pleasant. This is a nightmare. It is as though this place was deliberately made to fly against everything we consider right and good, or even sane.
Everything was going well, at first. We took the city they called Mogadishu with relative ease; the Tosevite forces were poorly equipped and trained. Their landcruisers seemed horribly primitive in comparison to the reports I've heard from Zhōngguó and Indiya. They were lucky if they only lost four when taking down one of ours. We've already smashed their military forces to the ground, and there's only a few pockets of resistance up north, near the excuse of a city they call Hargeysa.
And yet, we're still bleeding, here. Even though the military is gone, the people still resist. I've lost count of the number of improvised explosives we've encountered in our sweep up the not empire. Even if most of them fail to destroy our landcruisers, they still cause us costly delays.
That's not the worst of it. The improvised mines were not completely unexpected. What I wasn't expecting was what happened this morning.
I was doing a sweep with my squad as the division passed through a smallish city whose name I haven't bothered to remember. Not much resistance; there were a few trucks with guns on them, but we took them out with ease. The people there were the typical Tosevites in this not empire: tall, black-skinned, and thin. Many of them were starving. I never saw starving people on Home. I'm still not used to the sight.
So, we were going up the main street, which was made of gravel, and this old Tosevite comes out of a nearby home and starts approaching us. We weren't threatened at all; he was clearly at the end of his life, with wrinkled skin and white hair. His eyes were yellowish, which I imagine was a sign of disease. I don't know. It doesn't matter.
This old Tosevite slowly hobbled towards us, raising his hands and saying something in his language with a smile on his face. The only one of us who knew how to speak it was our squad leader Ttish. So, he hopped out of the troopcarrier and went over to talk with him. Ushak and Stizin went along with him, but we were cracking jokes about the whole thing. Back up for a harmless old Tosevite, right?
Ttish spoke with the old man for a minute, trying to figure out what was going on. Maybe he thought the man wanted him to get medical attention for a mate or child. I'll never know.
What I do know, is that the old Tosevite suddenly hugged Ttish, and before I knew it, I was on the ground, a ringing in my ears. When I finally got up, I nearly threw up.
There was just a red and black circle in the street where the four of them used to be. Some of the more liquid bits had spattered onto the walls of nearby buildings, it was that big a circle. Some of it got on my face, and Zawat got some in his mouth. Last I saw before he was sent back to base for a psych eval, he still had the same look of shock on his face.
Another squad came barreling in to look for any other bombs, and we took the time to try and clean up the mess. I never thought I'd have to scoop up my commander and comrades with a shovel and put them in a biohazard bag.
The worst part where the bits I recognized. The Tosevite's thumb, charred black at the end. A bit of Ushak's snout. I think the worst was when I found Stizin's eyestalk. We always joked with him about the stalks, since he was a Hallessi. 'How do you keep them from breaking when you bump into stuff', and other stupid things.
Well, Stistin was paste on the ground, but the stalk was still intact. It was like it was looking back at me when I put it in the bag.
The country's going to fall by morning. The President's been captured, and the Shiplords are planning on having him order a stand-down. If not, then we can just bomb them until they give up. Then the Shiplords want us to move west. The Fleetlord ordered three more landings on this continent, using the forces that were supposed to have landed in other places. I think the closest one's in Bangui.
I'm not sure how long we're going to be here. Rumor has it that we're going to break out the atomics by the end of the year, if we haven't captured at least a quarter of the planet.
To be honest, I'm not sure how that'd go. Even if it does work, even if we somehow beat the Americans and Russiya and Zhōngguórèn and make the rest of the world follow in their footsteps, I don't think we'll be able to keep Tosev III.
There are seven billion Tosevites, apparently. If even only one in a thousand are like that old Tosevite, then we aren't going to last until the Colonization Fleet gets here.
Assuming the other aliens don't kill us first, that is.
-/-\-
Igoshin I
Ret. Lieutenant Mikhail Fyodorovitch Igoshin is a rather unassuming-looking man, which belies the notoriety he and his fellow soldiers received during the war. Despite being in his forties, he has what can only be described as a baby face, and he is rather soft-spoken and polite during our interview in Moscow. We sit down in a park, and break the ice with a game of chess while I ask my questions.
Q: Is it true that you and your squad were amongst the first responders to the Race's landing in Mongolia?
A: Yes. When the yascherits brought their ships down in Ulaan Baatar, the Central and Eastern Military Districts were ordered to relieve the Mongolian forces. Which, we liked to joke about, was code for "Shit shit shit, let's push them towards China before they go north." There was almost no actual relief of beleaguered Mongolians, because there were almost no Mongolian forces left. Most of the army was either dead or captured after Ulaan Baatar fell.
I was in the Central Military District, in the 41st Army. We were accompanied by the 29th Army, the 5th Red Banner Army, and whole bunch of others. Overall, the force was around five hundred thousand men. The yascherits numbered eight hundred thousand, and they had twice as many planes.
Back then, I was only a private, with no combat experience, and scared out of my wits. None of my squad had any experience, with the exception of Iosef, who was an old Afghanistan veteran with back problems. Still, when the order went out, we followed through without hesitation, because we knew that none of the yascherits had experience, either.
Q: Could you describe the counteroffensive?
A: I'm not sure how well I can. Let's see...
He takes one of my pawns, then rubs his meaty chin.
There was little in the way of strategic maneuvering. Mongolia's a flat country, with only a few mountains. This wasn't going to be like the previous modern wars, where movements were almost like surgery. The higher-ups simply gathered as much manpower as they could, and we charged down the steppes towards Ulaan Baatar. Our fighters and bombers went first, to try and gain air superiority , then we were sent in.
Q: What was your experience during that?
A: A lot of driving. I was crammed into the back of an APC, along with sixteen others. We didn't see combat until five hours after the operation's start, when we came across a small yascherit force taking a place called Darkhan. We and twenty other squads were sent in, along with sixteen T-14 Armatas and a few IFVs.
The yascherits didn't know what hit them. Our T-14s took out their landcruisers quickly enough, and the enemy surrendered after our IFVs tore a hole into their ranks. I was almost disappointed; I didn't get to fire a single shot against them.
I was ordered to safeguard the town with my squad and two others, while the rest went to rejoin the push towards Ulaan Baatar. I spent most of that time just keeping the yascherits at gunpoint, and sampling Mongolian hasish with the locals. I saw Iosef disappear into one of yurts with some woman who looked old enough to be my babuskha.
Q: How did you treat the Race prisoners?
A: We just made sure they weren't going anywhere. They were all huddled up against each other, shivering, many of them wrapped in stolen wools. Pieter knew some of their tongue, and he just casually chatted with them, asking a few questions.
That was when we learned that half of their landcruisers had stopped working before we even arrived. Chuckles. As it turned out, when you come from a hot desert planet, you probably never considered inventing antifreeze. Even alien invaders from another star were helpless before General Winter. We actually gave some hats out of pity.
Q: I must admit, I'm surprised by your description of their treatment. Most news of the time said that the Russian High Command intended to give them no quarter.
A: That was just something our Defense Minister said to make us look strong. Giving them quarter was important. Not necessarily because we wanted to be humane, but because we wanted answers from the prisoners. We wanted to learn about their technology, and you couldn't get answers from the dead. Besides, we'd figure they'd make good leverage for any negotiations.
After I make my move, he suddenly takes out my rook with a knight. He grins, then leans back a little.
I think the Red Army gave us Russians a bad name when it comes to human rights. Everyone seems to like to think of us Russian soldiers as foul-mouthed vodka drinkers who just casually slaughter civilians left and right and commit atrocities. We're people too, you know. Sure, maybe we weren't as well-disciplined as other nations, and the High Command was certainly more callous than most of its counterparts, but we're not just a bunch of brutes.
What we did to the Germans, while wrong, was born out of immense anger. Meanwhile, while the yascherits were scaly invaders, they hadn't really done anything to us at that point. They hadn't sent our parents to camps, or enslaved our brothers and raped our sisters. Our killing of them was more... distant, and less passionate.
Q: How long where you there?
A: Not long. By tank, it'd take sixteen hours to get from the starting point of our offensive to Ulaanbaatar. It was twelve hours later that we received news that the yascherits had retreated from Ulaanbaatar and back into space, leaving countless vehicles behind due to the cold. They left thousands of their kind behind, too.
There were some festivities in that town when we got the news over the radio. We broke out the drinks, put on some atrocious punk music, and had a hell of a time.
Then we got the news of the other landings. Bangui. Kabul. Kano. Hyderabad. Chengdu. Riyadh. Hamhung.
A silence hung in the air, when we realized that there were probably a few more million of those fuckers planetside. I think we let our victory, and the victory in Cairo, get to our heads too much. We'd beaten them back in easy places, but now the war was going to get much harder. I think we all knew that, standing in that cold Mongolian town. The yascherits were visibly amused by our distress, too.
The only relief in that moment was when Iosef finally stumbled out of the yurt with the biggest grin on his face, asking why the festivities had stopped. The look on his face...
He closes his eyes, and pinches his forefinger and thumb together, holding it up for me to see.
Priceless.
-/-\-
Atvar II
Atvar pulls out an old holoprojector and places it on his desk. Flicking it on with his index fingerclaw, he shows me an image of a knight on horseback.
A: This what we were expecting you to be, when we arrived in the system. After all, there was no reason for such a sudden technological leap forward in such a short time. I could count on one hand the differences in our technology between today and when we first discovered your planet. You already know the shock we felt when we discovered a modern civilization on this chilly egg of a planet, but I'm not sure if you can understand it, on the same level we did.
I was still hoping for a swift victory over the planet when we made our landings. That was quickly dashed when we lost four starships on the opening day. Less than twelve hours into the invasion, and we'd lost a hundred times as many troopmales as our previous conquests combined.
Still, we had to push on. There was no other choice. If we retreated Homeward after the destruction our forces had already wrought upon some of your cities, then the Colonization Fleet would have been the target of your wrath. If we surrendered, then there was no doubt that you would have been able to reverse-engineer our technology, and threaten Home within a mere few generations.
And yet, it seemed that failure was our only option. Our computer programs depleted a total depletion of our first wave within two Tosevite months, if we continued on the path we'd set out. If we were to win, or at least gain enough of a upper hand to preserve the Colonization Fleet, then a change of plan was needed.
Q: You say that the Race is slow to change, and slow to adapt. How were you able to try and change your doctrine after only twelve days?
A: Such an unthinkable situation needed an unthinkable response. That was the chant of Straha and his faction during the first week of the invasion. Of course, for them, the 'unthinkable response' was to simply break out the atomics and try to turn your planet into radioactive glass. I knew that solution was undesirable and infeasible.
Q: Would you care to elaborate?
A: Our explosive metal bomb arsenal was not very sizable when compared to the larger nations, especially Russiya. Combined with the effectiveness of the more advanced nations' anti-air defenses, and it was likely that we would only be able to destroy a few cities in the less-advanced nations. While it would've likely plunged the planet into nuclear winter, it also would've ensured the total destruction of our forces, and seal Home's fate for good.
He takes another sip of his brandy.
Therefore, I decided on another course.
He presses a button, and the projector shifts, showing Race gains after the Battle of Cairo. Two more dots appear in Africa, along with one in China, one in North Korea, and two more in the Middle East.
We would focus on the weaker nations for the time being, especially the ones that were more hospitable to us. Many of the forces in the region were trying to dislodge the landings we'd already made, which meant that the rest of their not-empires were relatively defenseless. Resistance would be far less pronounced, and territorial gains appropriately increased. Once enough territory was under our control, we would once again demand Tosev III's total surrender, using our holdings and atomic arsenal as leverage.
Q: How would the atomic arsenal be used as leverage?
A: The Tosevites would have more to lose if they tried to use their atomics against us, as such strikes would also kill millions of their own people. On the other claw, it would have been less risky for us to threaten nuclear warfare when our enemy was less inclined. We would demand that America and Russiya make no moves against us, in exchange for no attacks on their own soil.
Q: A non-aggression pact.
A: That's the Tosevite term, yes.
Once we had their non-aggression pacts, then we could freely take over the smaller countries one by one, then focus our remaining forces into Zhōnguó and Indiya. Even with what we assumed were worst-case scenarios, we would still have thirty-two million males to attack the two not-empires with. Even they would not be able to stand against a force, and we would have more than half the Tosevite population under our grasp. Enough to consolidate our strength, and perhaps use local populations as ancillary forces for the final push into the remaining not-empires, including America and Russiya.
He takes a long draught of brandy, emptying the glass.
Well... that was the plan, anyway...
-/-\-
Wáng III
Wáng finishes his meal, then is allowed out of his straitjacket under armed watch so he can do his daily exercises. It is now that I see just just how deceptively muscular he is; he has the build of a weightlifter, and rather well-toned arms. There are some Hanzi tattooed on his left bicep; I don't know what they say.
Once finished, he is restrained once again without a fuss, and he smiles at me as we continue our interview.
Q: Now, what was your time at Shanghai like?
A: I did not see any combat, if that is your real question. I was far from the frontlines in the financial district; I simply treated any patients sent my way. Soldiers, mainly, though I also treated the odd civilian who was fleeing the destruction. Occasionally, one of their killercraft would fly overhead, and I would take cover like the others, but nothing came of it. The Race was struggling to prevent more air raids on their remaining starships in the city; they could not spare any fighters to attack us on the ground.
That passed for ten days or so. The Race had an initial advantage of numbers over us, but I saw more and more troops passing by my medical tent with each passing day, and the news got more and more optimistic. Most of the city had been reclaimed, and we'd killed thousands of the little scaly devils with fewer losses for our own soldiers. It was being predicted that we'd have all of Shànghâi back under our flag within the week.
Then, of course, we received the news of the landing in Chéngdū. I still remember the moment I heard the news. It was a fine morning, and I was removing some shrapnel from a corporal's ankle. Then, the radio began playing a emergency broadcast.
"The Race has landed in Chéngdū. Repeat, the Race has landed in Chéngdū."
There was the usual drivel about evacuation plans for civilians, but I didn't hear it past my own growing terror.
Q: What was the reaction to the landing?
A: Horror for many, and despair for others. A good third of our forces were focused in the area around the city, laying siege to the Race forces or providing relief for the civilians we liberated. The only other well-defended area was around the capital. The landing in Chéngdū was as though my country had been stabbed in the side, with nothing to protect herself with.
One of the men in my squad was from Chéngdū. He was a rather tall and strong soldier, whom almost everyone in the squad respected. When he heard the news, he simply stood there for a moment, then began to sob like a child.
I could not blame him. My family was still in Chóngqìng, around four hundred kilometers away. Meanwhile, I was nearly two thousand kilometers away. For an American, that would be as though the Race had landed in Miami while you are in New York, and your family was in that city with Disney World.
And that wasn't even considering the landing in Hamhung, which could easily spread to our northern borders, which meant that we were now fighting a three-front war, when we had been fighting just one beforehand.
And so, I was ordered to join the counteroffensive to liberate Chéngdū.
Q: And that was when you finally saw combat, yes?
Wáng gives me his friendly smile again.
A: Yes, that was when I would find my legacy.
-/-\-
You have been reading:
Worldfall, Chapter Three: Counterattacks and the Second Wave