November 21st, 2016 of the Gregorian calendar
Gunfire echoed through the valley as the marines held off a massive wave of Saderans through the fog which unfortunately gave the attackers that dwarfed them in comparison the opportunity to get dangerous close. Lt. Colonel Thomas Wake looked through his binoculars the carnage his men were inflicted onto the enemy.
To add to the slaughter M224 mortars sent HE rounds down range and were used with great effect, creating a wall of death between his men and the enemy. At last the enemy, having enough decided to retreat back down the hill and out of range of the mortars. After a few shots the battlefield became silent except for the wails of the dying that scattered it and dyed the snow red. Satisfied, Wake turned and onto walked towards the toppled mast antenna. Just before the attack, observers spotted what looked to be muzzle-loaded cannons on a ridge just under a mile from Apostle hill. Just as his mortars were about to blast them away, the enemy fired first and through shire luck managed to hit the antenna just before they themselves were victims of a brutally accurate counter barrage.
"Private!" He yelled at a radio operator maintener or ROM who he could barley see through the fog. "What's the chances we can get it operation?" He could see the young man swallow a lump in his throat. "Sir, the antenna is unsalvageable, the coil was smashed and the elements have been shattered." Wake took a second to respond as said, "So your saying we're fucked?" "No sir, we could still use the SINCGARS sir." The officer nodded his head, "Understood, now see if we still have contact with headquarters." The private saluted and sped off. He sighed and followed him to the command center of the base. After the two arrived in the radio room, the young Jarhead began tweaking with the dials while Wake watched.
"This is Tango-1, does anyone copy? Over." Other then the sound of the heater there was nothing. The Jarhead tried again, "This is Tango-1, does anyone copy? Over." Nothing, "This is Tango-1, we are surrounded and need support over!" Then there was something, it sounded like a female voice but it was scratchy, cut up and impossible to understand. Wake pinched the bridge of his nose and lightly padded the private's shoulder. "Looks like we made contact, try to get a better connection soldier." He said before walking off to check on the status of their supplies.
Demeteous 21st, 687 of the Imperial calendar
The general sat in the tent in front of a table, looking at the drawing on the map that represented Apostle hill. Reports from his scouts suggested that enemy force was no more then perhaps a few hundred and yet his first wave failed spectacularly, forcing him to abandon his plan to send another wave. Arlo had taken ten percent of all soldiers defending the mountains to attack this tiny position but considered the power of his foe, it was necessary. If successful, it'd be a massive boost to the army's morale and encourage them to continue to fight despite the fact that the hill itself held zero strategic advantage over the Other-worlders. He also hoped that he could capture enemy weaponry, finally allowing Sadera's finest minds to reverse engineer them.
Even if they couldn't they would now once they figured out how to operate, fight on more equal terms and hopefully start causing casualties. Suddenly he heard someone enter and turning to see his loyal woodland elf slave Dimar. "Master, I'm sorry to disturb but I have important news." The general stood up, "There is no need to be sorry and what is it?" He didn't show it but began to worry that the enemy was preparing to attack or their reinforcements were coming. "Centurion gufort has arrived with his Shavrgsh troops." His blood froze and his skin turned as white as a ghost. "What?! I asked him for reinforcements, not abominations! I ask that you show me where he is so I can kill him." The elf simply nodded and lead the general out of the tent and towards the entrance of his base that lead to a trail north that ran up to fort Delma a couple leagues away, a massive fortress named after the ridge it sat on.
There he saw a short man with a clean shave in a purple outfit wearing a wolf hide, followed by what had been humans turned monsters. Shavrgshes were men who had eaten a cursed fruit, giving them inhuman strength and speed at the cost of their humanity, reduced to either wild beasts and unwilling slaves. Arlon had been horrified to know that the emperor had been turning slaves, soldiers who were considered cowardly or captured deserters into Shavrgshes. He eyed them, their skin light grey and their eyes as black as a demon's would be.
"Gufort...I didn't ask for shavegshes." But the latter scoffed, "You wanted reinforcements." He said with a grin on his face. "Besides, they can be used as shock troops to smash through enemy lines or simply waste the enemy's numbers and ammunition." "But turning men into abominations isn't the way to go. Soldiers fight much harder and gain more results then any freak without a free will could ever achieve." The argument wouldn't continued had it not been for these words, "I am a member of the Oprichnina and under the orders of the emperor himself. You wouldn't disobey the emperor, would you?" That had shut him up. "Good general." He put his hand on the general's shoulder. "Now get your men ready, we have a war to win."
Later that night
The wind howled as the cold bite at his face but he and his troops continued forward. Gufort was determined to show that backwards general that his shavrgshes could and would help turn the tide of war. But his unit would be the first in while nine thousand additional soldiers would be behind him to finish off any survivors remaining. The Oprichnina officer placed his hand on the handle of his sword as his nerves itched for battle. Suddenly, there was a loud crack and he heard sometime zoom by. Then there was another and another, signaling that the enemy knew their presence. He raised his sword and pointed forward and looked to his creatures whom he could barley see, "Attack! Reduce them to bones!!!" The beasts lead out a collective roar before rushing forward, shoving each other as the enemy's weapons shot more intensely.
Gufort ran just behind the shavrgshes as they tanked through Other-worlder fire but it was intense. 'Damn! Did they know we were coming?' He thought but brushed it off and charge forward into battle, glowing red lights flashing by. Then there was something he noticed, something very concerning. Instead of the accuracy dropping as he'd thought for a enemy that fought almost exclusively long range, the closer they got the more accurate they were. Sure a shavrgsh could take multiple projectiles before falling, they weren't invisible and were starting to drop left and right.
Even with the mounting losses they still either through sheer luck or resilience of the shock troops or both, they got close enough to the enemy positions, forcing them to fall back out of their trenches and dugouts as the shavrgshes wrecked havoc. He could hear the screams of one as he was surrounded and torn apart. He didn't know how many of his ten-thousand strong force was left but it didn't matter because it worked and they were retreating. "Haha! Soon victory will be ours!" He proclaimed, "First here and then Alnus!" But very quickly disaster struck as whistling could be heard. "What the?.." His question was immediately answered as the ground around him shook from explosions, their cursed artillery was firing! Gufort turned and watched the soldiers run into the trenches, hoping to increase their chances of survival and he was about to reprimand them and there was a explosion right next to him.
Instantly, pain erupted across his body as the shockwave through him off his feet and blew out his eardrums. He could feel many tiny things inside of him and warm blood oozing out of many places at a alarming rate. He couldn't move his body and all of his limbs were gone except his left arm that had pieces of his flesh dangling off by his skin. 'Is this...how I end?...' he thought as his life slowly faded. 'I don't want to go life this. I could've done more for the emperor.' Tears blurred his already darkening vision, "Long...live Sadera..." he muttered as he died there, his life wasted for a hopeless victory against of the most feared groups in both of the known worlds: The United States Marine Corps.
November 22nd, 2016 of the Gregorian calendar
The previous night's attack had shook them all, men of Company Charlie reported huge, muscular Saderans with grey skin and all black eyes charging at them while soaking up ridiculous amounts of lead. It had taken a heavy mortar barrage to repeal them and even then the marines took casualties. The attack of these super soldiers had caused the deaths of twelve and leaving twenty more wounded, most of these were actually blue-on-blue or friendly fire as some hadn't been able to withdraw fast enough to get outta range.
It had been such a same to watch those marines be lowered into the ground in makeshift graves dug in the far corner of the outpost. The service was quick and immediately after everyone got back to tending the wounded, cleaning weapons, keeping tabes on MREs and ammo. Now Wake was looking down the hill towards the blooms of smoke from the enemy camp some four miles off, unfortunately out of range of his mortars.
Suddenly, he heard a faint noise and looked to see folk of birds flying towards his position but there was something off. He pulled up his binoculars and his mouth went dry. 'You have to be shitting me.' It was a formation of wyverns headed straight for them. But as soon as they appeared, the winged beasts disappeared in bloom of red clouds. The distance roars of jets whooshed by and had annihilated them before they had a chance to do any harm. 'About fucking time.' He though as he put a cigarette into his and lit it with his light. "Semper Fi motherfuckers, Semper-fucking-Fi."