GATE: the clash of the titans V2

by Qun Nguyn1

Mostly AUs. A Gate has opened in Tokyo by a Roman-esque Empire, familiar scenario with familiar faces but the people marched through the Gate is from a vastly more powerful magic world. The stage is set. Earth Alliance vs The Holy Empire. Science vs Magic. The power of the thousand sun vs The Beast of the Apocalypse. Let the clash of Titans begin. Let the worlds have War.

5. Chapter 5 War of the Worlds

Chapter 5: War of the Worlds.

Mindless Titan: This is one of the most moral-questioning bioweapon program in the Imperium. They are artificial insemination embryo being injected with Titan spinal fluid.

Because they are still in embryonic stage they have no mind of their own and will obey any command, that made them perfect cannon foodder. They are cheap, reliable and absolutely fearless.

The Mindless Titan are renowned for their utter discipline on the battlefield, both in their usage of incredibly coordinated large unit phalanx formations, and because they will never break in the face of overwhelming odds, even to the point of death.

Warg - A person who can send his consciousness into the mind of an animal, to see through its eyes and control its body as if it were his own.

The act of doing this is called "warging". The ability starts out as vivid dreams in which the warg sees and perceives the world through the senses of an animal. Over time and with practice, a warg can enter the mind of an animal at will. A warg's human body will become comatose when his consciousness leaves it to enter the mind of an animal, and his eyes will glaze over white, until his consciousness returns to his own body.

Warging is a separate ability from Greensight, the psychic ability to perceive future and past events in dreams. However, some people who are wargs can also possess greensight. They're excellence spies for the Imperial Government.

---

Simla Principality, Indiya Raj, Holy Empire

Praefectus Rav William Birkar of His Majesty 1257th Rocket Artillery Division of the Indiyan Praetorian Guard watched solemnly as yet another train overloaded with refugees from the lowlands ended its journey at the Simla Depot. From his vantage point atop a weather beaten cliff to the north of the city, Birkar gazed dispassionately as the train ground to a halt.

The Praefectus, a rejuvenated veteran of the Xizang Rebelion of 51817, raids against rebel bases in Xizang, knew the sorts of people likely to be among the refugees boarding the monorail trains that would take them to the actual SubUrb, buried beneath the Ghiaccioeneve mountains at an undisclosed location.

The ethnic groups most loyal to the House of Dragon — Assamese, Bengalia, Dogrin, Gujaratia, Hindik, Kashmirim, Konkania, and Maithilim Cat People ; Marathin, Nepalia, Oriyan, Punjabin, Sanskrita, Sindhin, and Urduk Snake People; Bodon, Manipurie, Gharkhu, Sykha, and Hundya Dark Elves; Kannadan, Malayala, Tamill, and Telugun Elves; Santhalia Dwarves...the wives and children of the soldiers drafted from the subcontinent's plethora of ethnic groups, the bureaucrats and administrators from the various Indiyan governments, and countless others.

Praefectus Birkar had lost track of the trains that had come and gone bearing refugees. He knew in his heart that no matter how many trains arrived at the depot, countless others would be left behind. In a way, it was a sad reversal of the story of the Darwin's Ark - the government was trying to save everyone, but it couldn't help but leave millions behind.

At least there were the fortified principalities — Nova Delhi, Neu Bombay, Novyy Madras, Pondicherry, and the island of Ceylon to keep the humans occupied as well.

"More of them?" Asked Primus Montgomery Dirgewaller of the 3343rd Imperial Rifles Regiment, an attached sub-division of the 817th Rocket Artillery Division of the Indiyan Praetorian Guard.

Dirgewaller's ancestors had come to Indiya from Duchy of Hanovera as employees of the Darwinia Occidentalis Company in 48,883, and he still had an accent that was both guttural and sing-song at the same time.

Birkar snorted; Dirgewaller made the question four times per day every day without fail...every time another train came in, as a matter of fact. Birkar knew that it was just the brawny blonde former Bombay stock trader's way of easing the tension that had steadily built up since GATE disaster, and the announcement of the imminent Global War.

"Yes," said the Praefectus grimly. He then repeated what he always said to Dirgewaller every day. "No changes at all."

He gazed down from his vantage point, soon to become the centre of a front-line strewn in unholy carnage, upon the refugees flowing towards the awaiting monorail cars.

Suddenly, his aide, a dark elf name Ravish, rushed towards him with a an Imperial warrant in his hand. "Sir, we have received dispatch order from the High Command. The 1257th Rocket Artillery Division will be deployed in Alnus. Effective immediately."

---

Fort Catherine, Uralia SubUrb, Holy Empire

Crown Prince Odysseus, the Prince of the all the Falmartians, greeted Grand Duke Shalenko as the nobleman bowed before him. Virtually all the luxuries of Fort Catherine, his mother's ancestral home, were stripped from their holding places to save them from the coming storm, glittered down upon the temporary Throne Room. The House of Romanov were heavily biased to an environment of glacial and glittering beauty; the sparkling in this once barren bleak hole in the ground was almost blinding.

Odysseus rose from his throne and bid Lord Alexis Shalenko, a fighting Gotenlander man who was in charge of the defences of the Holy Hill, to follow him. Both men travelled towards the corridor-lined with the golden busts of the previous rulers of the House of Romanov, looking ahead towards the Crown Prince's study.

Following them at all times were the silent bodyguards of the Crown Prince; a special battalion of the Emperor's Youxia, and were built like supertanks...but were surprisingly quick in their reflexes...the Prince knew fully well what they were capable of. In 51998, they had foiled a foreign dignitary, Lord Massoud of Russland, before the terrorist had managed to stab him with a steak knife. His bodyguards had grabbed him and smacked his skull in two seconds flat.

Odysseus bid his guards to wait by the door; only a direct order from the Emperor or Crown Prince could get them to follow that order. Both Odysseus and Shalenko sprawled on luxurious Bokharan-made cushions, and promptly lit up their pipes. Odysseus turned on a music recorder to the Firebird Suite.

"My old friend," said the Crown Prince, calmly puffing the gilded pipe. "Why do you insist on staying in Alnus Hill? There are many generals who can read your plans, after all."

"You know the answer already Ody," said Alexis Shalenko, blowing smoke rings. "Without a dragon at my command, this is the closest I'll get to my needed adrenaline." Both Odysseus and Alexis had met at the Air Academy in Kazan, where the scion of the Augustus Dynasty went nowadays for their military training.

"You know we have plenty of women here for that too," said the Crown Prince wryly. Lord Shalenko had been a bad influence on the Crown Prince when it came to women...he was a womanizer and proud of it.

Lord Shalenko laughed heartily at that comment; that brought back plenty of escapades, to say the least. "Odysseus, there's adrenaline, and then there's adrenaline," belted out Shalenko. "There are some things that beat riding a dragon or sleeping with the Commandant's daughter...fighting alien hand-to-hand is one of those things." Shalenko had undergone rejuvenation, and naturally was spoiling for a fight.

For the next hour, Lord Shalenko went over his plans for the defence of Alnus Hill. The magical map that he brought with him showed the worst case scenario for a human surge over the Alnus steppe. The Crown Prince nodded sadly. His friend was a fighter, and would die that way. This thought came to him as the Firebird Suite reached its crescendo.

After Shalenko finished the presentation, he bid his old friend good-bye. As it turned out, it was the last time that Crown Prince Odysseus would see Shalenko ever again.

---

October 10 -2029,Tokyo Great Base, Earth

Itami sorted through all his favorite mangas, this was probably the last time he could see the sky of Japan so if he was going to die he will die with his favorite manga. Finished sorting his mangas, he began the process of checking all the gears and documents necessary for the long expedition.

The Global Security Council had declared war on the Holy Darwinian Empire, the might of the entire world's armies was about to fall upon them with the fury the world had never seen before. There were a lot of politics involved up until now, most of which Itami didn't bother to follow. The official aim was to force the Holy Empire to unconditionally surrender and pay compensation for the victims of the Rumbling but the unspoken reason was to redirect the anger of the working mass, maintain the capitalist hierarchy and to conquest new territories. He would soon be deployed to Falmart for those reasons.

He would soon jointed the First War of the Worlds, fighting against an alien races had magic.

He wouldn't be alone however, Itami would command the Third Japanese Special Task Force to support the vanguard armor formations of the Earth Expeditionary Force during their operations into the "New World". Japan wasn't really happy about the massive military forces in their capital but the huge FDI investment from the UEA was very attractive. Many Japanese officials thought that this would be easy money and the interdimensional war would be like a walk in the park.

But Itami knew better, thought. This war would be anything but easy, the Holy Empire was strong and it's population were tough-minded. The idea of anyone subjugating an empire of ten billion magicans and tough-minded citizens struck him as surreal, to say there would be a lot of casualties on both sides.

It had been a long six months, training with the United Earth Alliance Defence Force (UEADF) to integrate the JSDF Special Task Force into the command structure. Briefing, language classes, pre-deployment workups, heavy weaponry maintenance, Combat Jacket issue, Neuralink implantation, and many other woes that lead to a deployment had take up most of Itami and his colleague time.

All of that hadn't been the only things going on, there was many activites in the Tokyo Bay, where the UEADF were testing their own GATE prototype. Gathering data and carrying out reconnaissance had already begun to set the stage for the interdimensional invasion.

During this time, General Yōji father's, Minister of Defense Taro Itami, repeatedly calling to remind him to work seriously. Many of his peers also maintained constant communication with their families, some even had surprise meeting. Not everyone was so fortunate however and many including his close friend, Lieutenant General Tommy Kennedy of the US Army, would have to go off war without seeing their love ones one last time.

---

The Holy Alliance Command Center, Fort Wilhelm, 700 Km North Of Alnus Hill

Deep beneath the surface of the earth, in a room filled with opium smoke, Grand Duke Shalenko, Supreme Commander of the Alnus campaign, salutes his fellow commanding officers, Commander of the Imperial Air Force, Epistrategos Luflus and Commander of the Mindless Titan Auxiliary Forces, Epistrategos Mokzas; Like Shalenko, they were brave men who volunteered for this suicide mission, which was to prepare for the opening battle in order to test the strength of the enemy on the other side and show the enemy the true might of the Empire. To die in a glorious battle for their motherland was the highest honor one could get.

Shalenko looked at the countless red dots forming three concentric circles on the map with great pride as another 10 of his super-heavy rocket artillery complexes were completed. They were the world's first true underground super-heavy rocket artillery silos and each silo had taken millions tonnes of concrete to construct. A facility that could launch rockets on an industrial scale.

Each silo was 300 m long, 130 m wide and 20 m high, amounting to a 39,000 m2 surface on the ground, and a volume of concrete of 880,000 m3. The roof was 16 m thick, featuring four layers: the first one was a 7 meter layer of reinforced concrete; the second was a 70 cm granite and concrete layers; the third was a 3.4 m layer of reinforced titan crystal, and the fourth, was a "Fangrost" layer of steel beams, 2.80 m deep.

A standard gauge curving railway was connected with both the east- and west-bound mainline railway, allowing trains to run straight through the complex without needing to reverse or turn around. From the main unloading station the Rocket Launchers would be moved into underground tunnels and side tunnels on trolleys, with the side tunnels doubling as ammunition storages.

When the time came, the A-6 Helstorm Multiple Rocket Launcher would be moved out of the side tunnels to a 51 metre wide and 33 metre high octagonal chamber, under a meter thick blast door, the central feature of the complex where dozens of the 650mm rockets would be launched at Alnus Hill all at once turning it into a dead zone.

A thousand of such bunkers had been built around Alnus to house his rocket artillery divisions, which wasn't a cheap or easy feat at all, because while the Praetorian Guard's rocket artillery formation consisted of only 25 of the 500 or so divisions defending Alnus Hill, they constituted a significant element of the combat power facing the human. And since the area surrounding Alnus was essentially flat plain, this was the only way for him to ensure his forces would survive long enough under the human relentless air strikes to launch counterattacks on the human positions.

"Are you sure about this, Lord Shalenko?" The Dwarven general Mokzas questioned the decision to sacrifice a dozen divisions of mindless Titans as bait.

"We need a feint attack, Lord Mokzas." Shalenko calmly explained. "It would be too suspicious to leave Alnus Hill without any protection. Twelve divisions are large enough to trick the humans that this is just standard operating procedure, not an elaborate trap to lure them into a killing field. Just imagine how surprised they will be, when instead of javelins and spears, their army is met with 650mm rockets and 420mm high-explosive incendiary shells." Just the mention of that made Shalenko shiver with excitement. The human wouldn't know what was waiting for them. At least that was what Shalenko hoped.

"What about your men, Lord Luflus? Have they mastered Princess Pina gift?" Her Imperial Highness had great expectations; and demanded great results.

Of all the imperial siblings, The Fifth Princess, Pina Co Lada, was the most clever. She is the most intelligent woman of her generation. Compared to the Third Prince, Diabo El Caesar, who was professionally assessed as 'remarkable', Pina was 'incandescent'. "An Era-Defining Genius." A gift from Pina was a great honor and a curse at the same time as her invention tends to either work flawlessly or explode upon touching. Luckily for Luflus and his men, this time was the first case.

"Thanks the Gods, Void Lantern Haunebu I works as advertised. It outperforms the old Kongming Sky Lantern in every parameter. Yesterday, on a test fly, the Haunebu I demonstrated the absolute ceiling of 170,000 meters."

"170 THOUSAND meters!" Eyes and mouths wide open, both of the men were exhilarated; that was well into the planet's mesosphere (Falmart's atmosphere is about 3 times thicker than Earth.); much higher than any flying species could achieve. Almost three times the highest flying dragons, confirmed to fly at 63,000 meters above sea level.

"That is far above the maximum altitude of any known UEADF's anti-aircraft gun; only high-altitude anti-aircraft missiles could reach such altitude." And the humans had a lot less of the latter. The news was a great encouragement for them. "What about its top speed?" asked Shalenko.

"About 1,046 km/h (650 mph) at 150,000 meters above sea level." With his signature smirk and bravado on his face, the elven general declared.

"That's the speed of the fastest warbird, Her Highness is a Genius!" Mokzas exclaimed.

Using the magical Vril engine, Haunebu I created a vacuum bubble inside the lantern-shaped airship to create tremendous lift. This vacuum expanded thereby preventing the balloon from being squashed by atmospheric pressure. Entered into mass production as an airship far superior to the standard Kongming Sky Lantern, the Haunebu I revolutionized air combat with its extremely high service ceiling. Instantly outperforms all Lanterns in service.

There was only a very small group of people in this world capable of recreating the lost 'void bubble' technology of the long-destroyed Gra Vakas Federation, and Her Highness Pina Co Lada was one of them. And Luflus was grateful for that, people like her would secure the Empire's final victory. The only regrettable thing was, they wouldn't live to see that day.

"How many Void Lanterns did Her Highness send us?" Mokzas wanted to know.

"One Hundred Thousand; and with more than enough combat pressure suits for stratospheric HALO jump."

"Oh Lord Darwin, that is enough for FIVE whole Imperial Air Corps!" His lips curled into a smile, but his thick beard covered it. "This will mesh nicely with your air raid plan, Lord Shalenko."

"Yes! If our intelligence about enemy aircraft is correct then Void Lanterns, despite their lack of offensive power, will help us avoid unnecessary skirmishes by flying above their absolute ceiling. We'll drop the entire 15th, 18th and 27th Air Corps directly over their heads." Bloodlust radiated from Shalenko as he imagined the dead and carnage his plan would bring. Damn them all to hell if the humans thought they could come here and take our land.

---

Camp Fuji Motor Pool, Japan

The rest of the morning was relatively quiet, tankers, airmen and heavy armored infantries moved to and fro as they began loading up their machines for the journey ahead. Every so often some nervous laughter would follow the occasional yelling of a radio check or other pre-operation nuance.

Everybody already knew what was their mission, the preparation over the past 12 years up till now were very thoroughly but there were many who were still flabbergasted over the fact they were actually getting ready to go off into a different world.

As their first deployment no less.

Meanwhile, Colonel Takeo Kurata CO of the 1st Combat Unit joined the rest of his troop in looking over the new equipment his friend and CG Lieutenant General Yōji Itami had distributed among the 1st Combat Unit.

Most of it was the usual items and tools they'd need to accomplish their mission; Most notable were the Combat Jacket Mk3 and its main weapon; the famous .75 calibre M47 boltgun. A brutally efficient weapon, the bolter fires .75 calibre rounds at its targets, each one a high-explosive incendiary armor-piercing (HEIAP) shell which explodes with devastating effectiveness after penetrating its target. The fear and awe that bolter fire created made it a perfect weapon for shock troops, the hammering thunder of the guns mixing terrifyingly with the dull, wet explosions as flesh were blown apart.

It was the strange weapon atop that caught their attention.

A 200kg Vrataski 775 battle axe.

Kurata eyed one of the battle axe with a raised eyebrow. "Let me guess, that's for if shit gets too close?"

Lieutenant Colonel Sōichirō Kuwahara his Second-In-Command merely nodded as he made sure both of the battle axe and pile driver were in good order. "Yeah, you remember those big fucking battle-beast in the document? Well the generals thought that they might be an issue on the other side."

"And we can't rely on Lockheed AC-130 W gunship for that?"

"Well, stranger things have happened."

Kurata rolled his eyes. "Guess that explains the HTH course we went through." His gaze shifted over towards the battle axe. "A fucking battle axe course..."

Kuwahara checked the slide on the Vrataski 775 battle axe before letting it go back forward. "This is for Military police (MP) only."

"Wait the MP get a RB4 pile driver and a fucking Vrataski 775 battle axe ?" Kurata looked on increduously "That's some bullshit."

Kuwahara gave a shrug. "Well, not like we can shoot the .75 calibre rounds inside the base."

Kurata nodded in approval he'd had played enough game to figure that out.

As the tank platoon began finalizing preparations, the CO yelled at the top of his lungs. "Attention on deck!"

Like an assembly line of robots every Tanker there snapped to attention, the 1st Combat Unit commanding officer, Colonel Takeo Kurata had arrived to oversee his tankers his armored ace in the hole.

Kurata looked relatively young for a Colonel. He had the face of a charismatic young leader, an uncommon trait among the higher echelons of command.

"At ease Tankers, form a school circle around me!"

With a throaty roar, the Tankers all gathered around him, some knelt, some stood, but all paid utmost attention.

Kurata take a deep breath . He was prepping himself for yet another stirring speech.

"Tankers! How are we doing today?!"

Every Tanker sounded off at once. "Hooah !"

Pleased with the response Kurata continued.

"Tankers, let me tell you now; I am proud, the Commander is proud, your Prime Minister is proud, the Emperor is proud, and more importantly, the people of Japan are proud. You represent the strongest armored formation on the planet. Your tanks, the Type-47 Sheridan and the Type-92 Chamberlain, are the heaviest modern tank armed with the biggest and most powerful high-velocity guns. Your perfect score is a testament to the Japanese Self Defense Armored Corp's professionalism and strive to excellence. That was really nice, I won't lie about that."

Some laughter and "Kill them all " spread throughout the platoon's ranks as the Tankers responded to this praise. Crushing his cigarette under his boot, Kurata continued.

"In a few days you will be flown off to Tokyo to join your brothers in arms, all of you will all march towards the GATE after the UEADF vanguard force, this war is to revenge for our lost one. It a testament to our power and indomitable need for justice and freedom. Believe me gentlemen justice will be served for the cataclysm they caused. You will be the spearhead to lead our JGSDF army through, your tanks will blast away the enemy and our nuke will light up their continents. The people of the world want revenge too, they lost a lot of people tankers. They want answers for what happened and we will be there to help them find those answers one way or another. Our purpose is to bright hellfire to anything beyond that GATE and make them regretted that they have ever setting foot on this world, no one has any real idea what's beyond that GATE and how strong these enemy, but if there's anyone who knows how to charge into the unknown and blast the hell out of the enemy, it is the armored corps, Oorah?"

At once all the tankers responded to this question, their lust for battle clearly evident in their reply.

"Oorah!"

"Damn right, these past five years you have trained and interacted with the UEADF, you know how they do business and they know how we do business. That been said, support them, work with them, but above all learn from them as they learn from you rah?"

"RAH!" once again every Tankers responded the same as before, their Espirit de Corps invoking a strong reaction within.

"These assholes don't have the nuclear firepower we have, they don't have the technology we have, and they most certainly don't have the heart we have. They maybe very big, fast, strong, nearly immortal and have powerful magic. But you will charge through there asshole and you will kill them all, you will make them regret every life they took that day, but don't forget we also have rules."

Kurata put his hands behind his back. "Controlled chaos gentlemen, controlled chaos. In a few hours you will joint a parade in Kyoto. Shaking hands, kissing babies, march around the city, show the heavy weapons all that shit. Am I clear?"

Once again he received the answer he was expecting. "Oorah!"

Satisfied, Kurata took his leave wishing them best of luck. As he reached his Oshkosh L-ATV he turned around. "Now let's

show the world the best parade of their life eh?" With that, he took his leave.

No sooner had Kurata left , Kuwahara clapped his hands together. "Alright Tankers get these tanks prepped and ready to fucking roll!"

As tankers began to swarm over their machines, the lieutenant colonel chuckled. "Red carpet ain't gonna roll itself out."

---

Nakagyo Ward-Kyoto, Japan

The drive to Kyoto had felt like a long one, owing in no small part to the super heavy tanks being part of a massive convoy. Every turn had to be careful ground guided with separate roads being blocked off in order to avoid any potential accidents.

Japanese citizens watched wide eyed as UEADF equipment lumbered by; tanks, missiles, trucks and armored vehicles of various types. It had been 12 years since the Rumbling destroyed their city but even now they couldn't quite comprehend seeing such a massive buildup of arms and armor in their own backyard. Some people waved and cheered while others simply stared and shook their heads.

Nothing would ever be the same in Japan and the rest of the world after such disaster.

Eventually the convoy made its way to the rebuilt Kyoto city hall, the entire city still showing signs of the cataclysmic event even after extensive repairs carried out by Japan. What was eerie was the fact that most of the area was almost a ghost town, what little number of civilians remained watched from beyond barricades or paid their respects at a nearby victims memorial. It wouldn't be until later on that the troops would find out that entire blocks had been effectively cordoned off in order to enact a sort of pseudo DMZ.

Once the convoy got in place and accountability carried out, the troops went about getting into formation for the inevitable pep talk.

Inevitable in that everyone could see high ranked UEADF officials and Global Security Council world leaders including the Prime Minister of Japan Motoi Shinzō, the group on a stage complete with a podium. All the troops stood ramrod straight and listened intently as one by one each of the VIPs began their talks, Motoi Shinzō being the first.

Well, most of the troops.

Itami listened to the Prime Minister alongside his fellow UEADF commanders and tried his best to keep his focus as well as avoided the intense glare from his father.

Between the new appointment by his father and fact he was actually deploying, the young general was anything but excited. All he had wanted to do was continue his enlistment in peace and use it to support his hobby. Now here he was appointed to command a task force with 32,500 troops and getting ready to be sent off to a hostile alien world and to fight nigh-immortal giant Titan.

At least he wasn't alone and not in front. No that "honor" belonged to the Vanguard Army Group, a special army group comprise of many elite armored divisions from the Big Five, not that many of the Japanese troops were complaining. The Vanguard in front meant they'd be the first to be thrown at whatever lay on the other side which made sense given their reputation. The Vanguard Army Group was manned with veteran soldiers armed with the newest weapons so they were known for being thrown at things and crashing right through.

Itami's train of thought was interrupted as the Prime Minister began his speech.

"My fellow humans, for today we all stand shoulder to shoulder against a threat that engulf us all. Truly, in these desperate days, if we do not hang together, we will all hang separately. Today, there are no, Japanese no Russians, no Americans or Chinese or Australians. We are all humans together and it is to each other that we must look for our survival. We cannot hope for aid or help from others, we stand alone with only each other and the tools of our joint ingenuity to protect us.

As of this day, we find ourselves embroiled in a war, a war we must win completely and utterly. Today, we find ourselves allied with our former enemies, they are our brothers in a wider struggle, on all of those who have brought humanity so much pain and suffering ten years ago."

Motoi motioned to the other gentlemen that had taken a stand during his speech before continuing.

"In the war we are about to fight, we will take casualties, probably more than at any time in our history. But we are comming. Humanity is coming. We will not stop, we will not cease, we will not fail. No matter what it costs, no matter what the sacrifices we must make, no matter how long it takes, no matter who we trample on the way, we are coming to revenge for our lost ones. On that promise may our enemies rest in an uneasy and frightened sleep.

With this Resolution has finally been adopted thanks to the efforts of officials from all national governments, and now at last we are ready to dispatch the full might of Earth's military to Falmart and brought them to justice ..."

As the speech began to drone off in his ears Itami's eyes began to wander, eventually snapping onto the memorial. It was a simple thing, a few pillars of stone with the engravings of various names. However, wasn't so much the monument that caught his attention, but the ones in front of it.

It was the same girl he had rescued ten years ago, she had become a teen now, accompanying her being a man that Itami guessed was her father. The pair stood there their gaze resting on one name in particular, Itami couldn't read the name but he didn't need to.

It was her mother, the girl had come here to pay her respects on the day her country's military went off to avenge her mother's death and many others. Itami steeled himself and took a deep breath. He was worrying so much about his hobbies and simple life being interrupted that he forgot to remember exactly why he was here in the first place, the real reason for his enlistment. Or rather, what the primary reason for his enlistment was supposed to be.

To serve his country and defend his people.

The soldiers in front of him had been down this road before, lost brothers to war in far away places and here he was worried about having to leave his comfort zone. For just a moment Itami felt almost ashamed.

This war would be a chance for change, change within himself and making his father proud, he hope.

This is for better.

Itami gulped.

Or for worse.

But I'm still nervous…

Itami tried to get a grip on the jumble of emotions he was now feeling as the Prime Minister continued.

"The main force will come from the Big Five, but the GATE is in our land and as such, we will be more than advisory role, we will show those alien the strengh of the Japanese people. And together with the people of the world we will win. "

Next, the JSDF Commander in charge of the Japanese operation, General Hazama, took to the stage and begun addressing his men.

---

October 12 -2029,Tokyo Great Base, Earth

Dr Hange Zoë sorted through all the data, this was the final check so she need to make sure everything is normal for the expedition.

"Are you sure this Quantum Tunnel Stabilize is safe, Dr Hange ?" asked the SCAEF Liam Nuttall, looking a little bit concern about the weird looking massive machine in front of him.

Hange shot the Commander a quick glance and rolled her eyes.

"Commander, I already explained a thousand times. It's perfectly safe. Using the data from the original GATE in Ginza and the quantum locator we have been able to enlarge the Wormhole up to 5 km in diameter enough for our army and all their supplies to march through, the war will be on time, I assure you."

---

October 13 -2029, The GATE, Bay of Tokyo

The first combat forces that will go to war on Falmart was the Vanguard Army Group.

The main forces were the Anglo-American with 200,000 soldiers with 4000 Type-47 Sheridan tanks and 1000 Type-92 Chamberlain tanks along with many powerful weapons such as M370 MLRS, 203 mm M195 railgun, M65A 406mm Atomic Cannon.

The following were the troops of the Federal Republic of China that sent 200,000 soldiers, 2000 Type-47 Sheridans, 1400 Type-92 Chamberlain along with many Artillery, IFVs, APCs.

The United Republic of Europia along with Republic of India will send an equal army of 200,000 soldiers along with 3240 Sheridan and Chariot MBTs respectively.

Greater Russian Union will provide 200,000 soldiers with 1240 Type-92 Chamberlain tanks, 3000 Type-47 Sheridan MBTs, the famous Russian-made TOS-1D 320mm Multiple Incendiary Thermobaric Rocket Launcher, Iskander-W mobile short-range nuclear ballistic missile system.

Other countries will support with military forces after the Vanguard Army Group takes the hill.

The rest of the UEADF that would join later will be from Japan, Latin America, ASEAN, Arab World, even North Korea wanted to help, something unexpected but after one of the most horrible events of the 21st century, solidarity between countries was greatly increased.

The first to advance through GATE will be the United States, followed by the Russia and then the rest of the nations.

The objective was clear, it was to take over the Alnus Hill turned it into a massive base and then prepared for the inevitable offensive deep into the Empire territory.

The number of troops in the initial forces were sent to take over Alnus Hill may be an overkill but it was better to be safe than sorry, they should not underestimate the enemy.

Itami and the others VIP of UEADF are listened to the explanation about how the GATE worked as they walked, until they reached something like a huge hangar. This was the Tokyo Central Command.

It was a vast, windowless space, roughly four to five stories tall, with no windows. It felt familiar to Itami; it reminded him of the Tokyo International Exhibition Center.

However, he did not see folding tables there.

"Ah, it's a Shinshin."

There was a mockup of an experimental stealth fighter here, as well as kinetic kill vehicles designed to interdict medium-range ballistic missiles, among other things.

Technicians in white one-piece coveralls stood at the edge of this testing ground, arranging cameras and machinery to surround a central platform.

The floor was covered in tapes marking off squares in a grid pattern.

A frame of white ropes — resembling a jungle gym — hung in the air, also forming a grid pattern.

They brought Tuka to the center of the elevated platform. There were familiar faces among the researchers near her.

"Ah, Professor Youmei." said Liam Nuttall as he waved his old professor at the university.

"Ohh, you're here , is a big day , we are going to open a GATE through other dimension. I heard they were conducted experiments concerning the Gate using a magican as a locator right?"

Nuttall shaked the hand of his old teacher and answerd," Yes professor. There are unmeasurable number of worlds out there you need a locator to find a particular world among all the others."

Dr Hange Zoë was there as well, waving to them.

Elsewhere, a female technician was attaching electrodes to Tuka's head and various parts of her body.

Tuka did not seem to mind. Instead, she eagerly asked, " After this I can go home right ?" and nodded as she received her answer.

As the preparations proceeded apace, the world leaders - headed by PM Motoi — gathered around as well.

"It's rare that we're all gathered at a place like this," Itami muttered. After all, the people here were the sort he would normally only see in the papers and news.

"Idiot, it shows how important this Event is."

Following his father words, Defense Minister Taro Itami added, "The reopening of the Gate will shape world's future. Once we master the GATE technology, it will open a new horizon for the human race. The conquest of Falmart is just the beginning, the GATE have unlimited potential. The GATE is a cheap and easy method of interstellar travel, this mean mankind will have more worlds? We have to take from each other in an unsightly way because our world is too small. But if we could live freely over a multitude of worlds, we wouldn't need to envy, hinder and exploit each other! This is a blessing from god! We might have suffered in our cramped little world, but now we don't need to worry about that any longer. The ability to infinitely expand our borders will free us from the problems of ideological and religious conflicts! After all, you just need to go to a place where the people you hate don't exist. We can just draw our boundaries and never emerge from them."

"We will begin the opening sequence shortly. All personnel to your instruments and stations. Five. Four. Three…"

Everyone watched Tuka with bated breath.

Tuka closed her eyes, and incanted a monophonic verse which sounded like a pigeon whistle.

"Please look, the subject's brain wave patterns are showing surprising changes."

"The amplitude is off the scales. It's as though she's having an epileptic seizure… to think she could remain conscious through all this."

"Probably because it's limited to part of the cerebrum."

Not every part of the EEG display was flickering wildly. Other parts showed no changes at all.

"...Two. One. Contact!"

With the merest of movements, Tuka opened a Gate to another world before the onlookers.

On top of Tokyo Bay, the world twisted.

At first they thought the sea had collapsed, but then the earth groaned, followed by a sudden small earthquake, and then a black sun appeared at the top of what should have been the sky. It was a swirling sphere of red and violet, and looked very ominous. The seafloor of the bay should have been flat, but for some reason it seemed to have sunk downwards, like a funnel. It looked just like a 2D model of a black hole, the depression growing deeper the closer one got to the center, and there was a hole in the center of it that led to parts unknown.

"So this is the famous GATE !?"

Ass the path was opened, Vanguard Army Group begin to move.

---

Unknown Time, Gate Transit Tunnel, Route To Falmart

The ride had through the tunnel had been long and stressful. Once the first MGM-140 ATACMS regiment entered the mouth of the Gate, the rest of the American and Russian heavy armored vehicles followed behind.

Illuminated only by the headlights of vehicles to their front and rear and the drones above, the massive Vanguard Army Group made their way through the dark void. Thank god it was a straight line from one side to the other side, so there was little room for error. No one dared to even test the theory of what lay beyond in the dark expanse to their left and right, but so far no one been whisked away into the void.

At one point during the ride, Lieutenant General Tommy Kennedy had even tossed a green chem stick over the right side of his Mobile Command Center (MCC). He had seen it had fly quite a ways before hitting a solid surface, but then again he couldn't be sure. He lit a cigarette before leaning over his 3-D map and staring into the void beyond.

Truth be told him and many of his troops in the US 3rd Armored Corps had actually gotten bored. Once the original track had stopped playing over comm, the soldiers began to amuse themselves by telling jokes and playing any songs they hadn't already played before.

Listening to the exchange over the net Tommy had sighed and adjusted uncomfortably in his seat. He felt boring so he called his good friend and comrade Lieutenant General Yōji Itami.

"Hey Itami, Do you think we'll see any cute Neko girls on the other side? I mean we've already seen High Elves and wizards, it only makes sense!"

Itami adjusted his peaked cap and Neutrallink before responding to his friend. "It will be great if we do, but I have a feeling that the tanks will scare them all away."

Not like we could bring them back, what a shame, Itami thought to himself. Kurata and Kuwahara were probably asking each other the same questions, being fellow Otakus like Tommy and himself they had to be just as curious.

Suddenly a voice came over all the comm channels. "All vics, this is Recon One, be advised we have eyes on a light at the end of the tunnel. Look sharp people."

"Well, that is it, wish me luck pal. "

At this remark everyone began to wake up, the boredom had been broken and units began to roger up. It was show time. The troops doing a last minute check on their Combat Jacket and relaxed a little. They were ready for just about anything.

5 minute later -

"Palace this is Horsemen One we have eyes on the mouth of the gate and what looks to be a heavy fortified position. Multiple Titan infantry supported by huge siege engines and demi-human auxiliary. Looks like a welcome mat, over."

"Copy that Horsemen One. You have the green light to engage, push through the position and try to form a base of fire. Keep us updated, we can't send the rest of our forces through until we have a clearer idea of the enemy's concentration."

"Roger, killing lights and engaging now. Horsemen One, out."

---

Alnus Hill, Lemuria Peninsula, Falmart

The sky turning black as then a black sun appeared at the top of what should have been the night sky. It was a swirling sphere of red and violet, and looked very ominous. The ground sunk downwards, like a funnel.

"G-GATE! THE GATE HAD APPEARED."

"Messenger, alert the encampments beyond on the contravallation lines!"

"Yes, M'lord!"

The terrified howl from one of the sentries' trumpet awoke the heavy fortified encampment. Soldiers quickly manned their posts behind tall steel barriers and sharpened crystal logs. Men mounted siege engines and the mindless Titans bellowed their war cries in defiance for whatever battle was ahead.

For months they had sat and prepared for the demon army beyond the gate. Their spies on other side told horror stories of steel elephants belching fire and steel bird that could destroy an army with ease. This was not the first time a mighty foe had stood defiant against the Holy Empire and by the name of Emroy, it shall not be the last time such a foe would be bested either.

As the soldiers awoke from their sleep rotations they squinted into the darkness beyond with sharped eyes, preparing for their last stand against the approaching darkness. This would be their final battle, the generals had demanded their sacrifice to lure the enemy in, and lure the enemy in they would, for tomorrow they would dine with Emroy.

They could all see the four dozen golden orbs shining from within the GATE. Titan soldiers gripped their massive steel weapons tightly and prayed to the gods that he would be the first to draw blood.

Then, the orbs disappeared and silence returned once more. The men nervously looked at each other and at their commander for answers. From behind the men, their leader got out of his trench and planted a great halberd into the ground. His voice echoed from within his armor as he took control of the situation.

"It would seem to be a trick of the mind! Be calm of mind and spirit men and let not such trickery fool you-"

The Primus never got to finish his sentence as hundreds of giant arrow of light started to fly towards him and filled the air with tungsten shrapnel and white, something. Both the Primus and anyone unfortunate enough to not be low to the ground were torn to shreds as the 20mm tungsten shrapnels violently punctured through them at the speed of sound.

Nobody was safe from the rain of death including the archers. One brave archer had blindly fired into the darkness only to scream in terror as the 120kg steel arrow bounced off one of the steel horrors that had started to emerge from within.

The air was filled with a shriek comparable to that of the mythical banshees as the steel horrors barreled down upon the defense. Behind them, their companions quickly emerged from the darkness eager to join in the killing.

One of the 15 m Titans that wasn't given the luxury of dying to the 140 ATACMS attempted to close with the enemy. It bellowed a vengeful cry in remembrance of its fallen comrade as it swung its mighty axe at one of the horrors. A futile effort as a 152mm HESH round hit it in the torso. All that remained of it was a red mass of meat and gore, that was quickly vaporized.

A second wave of Titans in the vicinity charged fearlessly at heavy tanks and IFVs and met the same fate and when a barrage of 152mm shells and anti-tank guided missiles, of both America and Russia origin, tore them apart faster than they could heal.

On the sky, hundreds of Wyverns flying in V-shaped formations to launch their fire attack but were swatted away like mosquitoes by a battery of super-heavy 120 mm SPAAG SkyShield. The SPAAGs fired programmable 120 mm AHEAD ammunition, carring a payload of 152 tungsten projectiles, weighing 99 g each. Gore and bones falling back like rain.

Thus the Battle of Alnus Hill was fought there and both worlds forever changed.

---

0600 Hours Local Time, Alnus Hill, Lemuria

The next to come out from the GATE were over 200 DeltaQuad VTOL fixed wing surveillance UAVs. They flew to the height of 15,000 meter in every direction. After confirming enemy locations in a 150 km radius from the GATE, the main army started moving into the alien world.

There had been a moment of silence when the first allied vehicles emerged from the gate, the mighty Type-92 Chamberlain tanks led the way.

Immediately, the tankers felt the increase in gravity and air; the light was also strange, that orange sunlight blushing lower in the sky to a pure spectral red Sol never achieves. Falmart noon had a warm tone, like perpetual afternoon, or gaslight, or firelight. Falmart's moon Oisin, which was twice as big as Luna, started to rise in the horizon. This was truely an alien world.

Large sloping fields of green, yellow and red as far as the eyes could see, massive mountains in the distance were coverd in a thick cloud. GPS navigational units began to static as irritated commanders tried their best to make heads or tales of where they were. Eager and nervous troops looked out of vehicle windows as they strained themselves to take in the sights all around them.

The human forces were well and truly in a different world now. There wasn't much time to gawk, however. No sooner had the first few thousands vehicles began to trickle through, radio reports started being sent down the line. Powerful optics scanned the horizon and sure enough the UEADF could make out any enemy forces amassing in the distance.

Back to business.

Allied forces began to dig in; men dismounted from armored personnel carriers, emplaced weapon systems were set up, MLRS batteries were sent up, mobile artillery began to elevate their guns and fighting vehicles prowled like big cats into defensive positions.

Just in a few hours an extremely strong defensive base began to appear on the ground of Alnus. If the enemy were bold enough to attack, they'd kicking over one hell of a proverbial hornet's nest.

Tommy dismounted from his MCC watching the scene unfold, it was nothing short of impressive in his eyes. The entire world uniting against one enemy outnumbered no less. This would be a story to be remember for generations.

He then stepped out of the back of the truck and took a deep breath of the foreign air. It tasted clean, air free of man's tampering. The lieutenant general adjusted the strap for his rifle and looked around as he tried to get his bearings.

Everything was so green. Miles of sloping lush green fields went on for as far as the eye could see. In the distance, snow-covered mountains sat behind miles of equally green forests. All of this existed under a crystal blue sky with clouds that looked like giant cotton swabs.

As he made his way around the defenses with his troops his ears picked up the familiar Russian accent of the Russian Army General he had met back at Tokyo. The General pointed at the TOS-1D 320mm Multiple Incendiary Thermobaric Rocket Launcher as his men fussed about with setting it up.

Tommy and his subordinate approached him and began setting up next to him. "Nikolay! Good to see you, mind if we set up here?"

Major General Nikolay Tereshchenko turned towards Tommy and gave a thumbs up as he pulled up his helmet glass.

"Sure thing. Hope you got ear protection though." He gestured towards the large weapon system. "Once this thing gets going you're going to wish you had."

Tommy nodded. He had been very sure to pack as much PPE* as possible, even if it meant having to dip into his own funds to get it.

As the troops began to set up sandbags Tommy looked towards the anti-aircraft system. The nuclear tipped SAM Nike Hercules II. The Nike Hercules II was the improved version of the MIM-14 from the 1980s. Armed with a much cleaner 20kt W77 pure fusion warhead, it more than enough to kill any Wyvern Lord.

Tommy breathed a sigh of relief as he saw a platoon of Nike Hercules II elevating their missiles, their radars spinning rapidly as the turrets began tracking anything in the air.

The Holy Alliance Command Center, Fort Wilhelm, 700 Km North Of Alnus Hill

"My Lords, the enemy had come; we have lost contact with the 806th Reserve Division." A soldier run into the command bunker reported.

"The 806th have returned to Emroy's Field of Hero. They have completed their mission, distracting the enemy, now it our turn to fulfill our holy duty." Said Epistrategos Mokzas.

"So..."clenching his fist,"...the time has finally come." said Grand Duke Shalenko with an eager grin. His heart was pounding incessantly. Shalenko missed this feeling very much; the thrill of entering battlefield, knowing his own life was on the line.

"Gather all the Titans to their position." Commander of the Mindless Titan Auxiliary Forces, Epistrategos Mokzas ordered.

Commander of the Imperial Air Force, Epistrategos Luflus took a deep breath before starting his battle speech through the magic radio.

"We are setting out to fight a war unlike anything before.

The outcome had been determinated, but we aren't afraid. The Empire is a place of traditional and conviction. A place where the strongest rule and those who achieve the most recieve the greatest rewards.

That is what set us apart from our enemy.

In the Empire, conflict is a part of life. Conquest is a right. The strongest are entitled to everything they claim. The Empire rule by the strongest, who is appointed by the Gods themselves.

The Empire is the Strongest.

YOU are soldiers of the Holy Empire. The greatest army ever march a cross Falmart. Take up your weapons! Charge into the heated battle and show them; show them what are you made of!

Now the humans will face the true strength of the Empire.

Now they will face YOU! LET SHOW THEM THE WRATH OF THE IMPERIUM!"

War cries burst forth from all across the battle formations, soldiers shouted in unison. "For the Empire! for Falmart!"

"Commence Operation Darkest Night!"

1st Amrored Division 'Old Ironsides', US II Armored Corps, 38km West of Alnus.

"All Brigades, this is One Actual. Status report."

"One, this is Four. Destroyed multiple sets of naked Titan and one of those Armored Titan things. All systems are green."

"One, this is Two. We're set and tracking the enemy position ahead. looks like a battalion—no, division-sized element."

"One, this is Three. Green to green."

"All Brigades, this is One Actual; good copies on all. All tanks form a line, standby for further orders. Harley 88, I need you to pull back and wait for order."

"Harley 88 copies." Overhead of the tanks, Apache attack helicopters flew past making rhythmic whoop-whoop noise.

"Roger, One Actual out."

"Got some activity. Looks like the neighborhood is waking up." In his tank, Captain Aldritch paused as he squinted through his sights and tried to make sense of the freakshow assembling itself in front of his platoon. "—Auxiliaries both armored and airborne. Definitely division level strength, over."

"All Units, this is One Actual. You're clear to engage."

Upon receiving their orders, the tanks moved to form a broad arrow-shaped formation pointed at the enemy. The vehicles seemed to glide over the grassy terrain as their engines propelled them into position, their heavy-duty tracks chewing up anything not anchored down.

XXXXXX

Once the distant echoes of screams and strange sounds hit the camps, all hell broke loose. Titan Goblins clad themselves in ancient gear and bellowed war chants. Wyverns were awoken from their stables and took to the skies. Battle mages read incantations and prepared powerful alchemy ingredients. War drums and horns began to play their song, instilling courage in the men as best they could.

Impressive as it all was, there was true fear in the ranks. One of the baron noticed this and took charge. Clad in the finest crimson armor, he raised his sword skyward and roared to his men.

"Men of 901st division, move like you have a backbone; the elite 1188th are right behind us, don't embarrass yourself in front of them! The enemy are here! Steel yourselves and look to the Emperor and the gods for support! Form ranks and prepare to advance!"

The baron paused as a strange bright glow illuminated the camp and the terrified faces of the men below. In the skies above, bright orbs of shining light cast their glows on the land.

The orbs continued to glow just as a distant voice began screaming about steel monsters coming to claim their souls. It was one of the camp guards near the Gate, bloody and covered in filth from a previous battle.

His screams were to be the only warning anyone received right as the very earth began to erupt into explosions. Titans and beasts were torn to bloody shreds as the invisible projectiles continued to pelt them. The baron that had been mustering everyone was the first to go, his Titan offering little protection as the nape was simply blasted into pieces by one of the 240mm HE howitzer rounds.

Wyverns tried to muster a counter-attack only to be shredded into chunks by strange red lines that roared into them from afar. Any that somehow dodged the red lines found themselves splattered by white ghostly trails of magic arrows that slammed into them.

XXXXXX

Captain Greenford and other tankers sat in their stations, mouths agape as they watched the detonations erupt within the enemy masses. Many of the Marines, including Greenford, were no strangers to the horrors of the battlefield. What was going on here was nothing short of a one-sided slaughter.

Enemy soldiers looked to the skies and yelled as if they believed the gods themselves were hurling fury down upon them. Ruined earth and debris from tents intermixed with bodies as the bombardment continued.

Meanwhile, batteries of 120 mm SPAAG SkyShield and squadrons of AH-64 Apache added to the carnage as they mercilessly gunned down any wyverns above the battlespace. Fast as these magical creatures were, they didn't stand a chance against weapon systems designed to hit much faster and stronger targets (Titan Wyvern Lord).

"Rounds complete."

Once the bombardment finished, Brigadier General Michael Summering dropped down into his station and changed radio channels. "Good effect on target Rhino Six! Starting our move now! All tanks, push forward!" Together, 392 armored juggernauts went forth.

Captain Elton checked his M242 Bushmaster and gave it a reassuring rack before shouldering his shotgun. "Okay boys, that's us! Driver, move out!"

"Roger!"

As effective as the early bombardment was, the enemy was tenacious, if not fanatical. What little leadership remained attempted to rally the troops and auxiliaries. They pointed at the armored vehicles of the Marines and yelled before mounting their horses, leading the charge.

Brave, but incredibly suicidal as they soon found out.

The constant thudding of autocannon fire intermixed with the periodic thundercrack of 152mm cannons created a chorus of chaos that shattered the enemy forces. Yet the enemy still fought on, so the tanks kept killing.

Captain Greenford brought his sights over a group of Centaur Titans and grit his teeth. "Identified, enemy cavalry! Range, 4000 meters and closing fast!"

"Fire and adjust!"

"HIMARS on the way!"

At a safe distance of 25 km, the M142 HIMARS battery fired dozens of M48 surface-to-surface missiles (SSMs) towards the enemy. Each missile carried a 500 lb WDU-18/B penetrating fragmentation warhead. The series of lound explosions pierced the armor and shields of the Centaur Titans, as if they were wearing only cloth.

Rocket Artillery Silo No 057, 1257th Rocket Artillery Division Indiyan Praetorian Guard

Listen attentively to Lord Luflus' Battle Speech on his magic radio, Praefectus Rav William Birkar of His Majesty 1257th Rocket Artillery Division of the Indiyan Praetorian Guard watched solemnly as his men moved the A-6 Helstorm Multiple Rocket Launcher out of the side tunnels to a 51 metre wide and 33 metre high octagonal chamber.

Their time to shine had finally come.

Birkar commanded a battery of one A-6 Helstorm Multiple Rocket Launcher and two 420 mm Helblaster Volley Guns. Fire in conjunction, they had enough firepower to raze a small city to the ground in less than an hour; and he had his assigned plan ready.

It was a strict and well-designed plan, hundreds of imperial mathematicians worked on its final design, with targets clearly designated for a complete and methodical destruction on a rigorous schedule. It was not their job to select targets or to swing his guns from one place to another, their place in the scheme of things was as a part of a huge machine that delivered massive utter destruction. Their task was to keep those heavy guns and rockets firing like clockwork, for as long as physically possible, covering the entire battlefield with an endless rain of high-explosives.

"Battalion Control, Praefectus Rav William Birkar. The enemy number has reached critical mass. Commence fire plan in six-zero seconds."

The gunners were waiting, the first 420mm shells already in the breeches of the volley guns, rockets already loaded full. The first of the millions that would descend like rain on the human army and grind their forces into fine ash. Who would have the honor of delivering the first blow against the machine horde descending upon their land? Would his guns and rockets, here on the western flank, succeed in opening this great battle? Or would the guns further east have that honor?

Birkar watched the figures on his clock changing as they reached the appointed second. Then, the strained silence turned into a mighty roar that crushed his eardrums and seemed to drive him into the ground. Multiple flashes of light were released from the A-6 Helstorm, followed by trails of white smoke and blue emission as dozens of 650mm rockets shot into the air. Nearby, each of the 420 mm Helblaster Volley Guns also delivered a pack of nine 1,160 kg HE shells at 1,480 meters per second from their nine barrels.

Now, all that Birkar could see were his men dropping into the methodical, routine motions as the shells and rocket were brought forward and fired. He had 10,000 tons of ammunition in this base alone, a testament to the sheer industrial prowess of the Empire, and he intended to fire all of it before going out in a blaze of glory.

---

D-Day plus 2, Command Center, FOB Base, Alnus Hill

Chinese General Lu Ganghu was reviewing the report on the progress of the base construction with his command personnel and the high ranks military officers from other countries.

Ganghu asked. "how many formations have pass the GATE ?"

The first lieutenant Liú Yúndé responded. "At this moment, more than 45 mechanized units, most were from US, Russia, India and China. The rest of the Vanguard Army Group will come in the next 25 hours. "

"Good, good!" The general nodded, showing his satisfaction." With a forces this powerful, no army will have the audacity to attack this base."

"Don't be so sure, General Lu. We must not forget that the enemy capable of using magic. We don't know what secret abilities the enemy has. Each any every soldiers of the Empire can turn into a Titan that mean they are weapon of mass destruction themselves so the war wouldn't be completely unilateral," US General Randy Martinez urged caution.

"But even with all their abilities, our forces still have an overwhelming technological superiority." India General Salman Khan pointed out.

"We cannot underestimate them, Falmartian are nigh-immortal, it hard to completly kill one. They can encase their body in an almost indestructible crystal. Even if we destroy their Titan bodies, as long as their real bodies are intact, they still can transform again. That mean we need to make sure every enemy we kill 100% death "said Russian General Vladimir Isakov.

"According to Count Colt Formal, the enemy have more than 100 million professional soldiers not couting magical also have many Special Operations Forces that are expert in asymmetric warfare." Commented EU General Augustin Arceneaux.

The gigantic number, that surpass even a modern civilization, gave a chills in the back to everyone present, that number was so overwhelmingly large for a civilization that is still in the late Renaissance age (17th century) but considering the size of the planet and the Holy Empire that covered it entirely had poweful magic, you could understand the size of the Imperial Army.

Everyone knew that this enemy could easily destroy a modern army if they weren't careful, so they had brought all the firepower availabe even the lastest pure fusion bombs and the largest combined army in human history, considering the sheer numbers and magical potential of the enemy the last thing they wanted was a Pyrrhic victory.

"We all know about the great present threat from the Imperial Army, but there is a chance to cut down the enemy number. The Holy Empire isn't an unify entity, it has many semi-autonomous regions and colonial vassal states. Count Colt Formal, one of our most important prisoners, is the governor of an autonomous region himself. If we could provoke an uprising in autonomous regions and vassal kingdoms, it would greatly weaken the Empire total defense forces. " Said Lu Ganghu.

"The words alone may not be enough to convince them. We need to provoke nationalist uprisings and bribe local leaders in order for the local population to be, at minimum, neutral in this war. In order to achieve this we need to show them that the Allied forces were simply superior in every way imaginable to the Imperial, we need to demonstrate them the power of our pure fusion bomb." Explained the American General.

"Hey, do you think it is strange that our enemy didn't prepare more for an impending attack? we only spot, at most, a dozen divisions in the nearby area. Where are the rest of them? " Augustin Arceneaux asked curiously.

"Who know!? Maybe they forget about us or maybe they have some plan but no matter what tricks do they have we will crush them all." Lu Ganghu boasted confidently.

"We should not underestimate the enemy ingenuity. Arrogant is the mother of failure." Commented French General Augustin Arceneaux.

Indian General Salman Khan sighed. "Fine, I will have my men triple check the surrounding area just to be for sure."

Suddenly, the radar technician shouted. "Commanders, a large number of missile launches have been detected; they are all heading in this direction."

Missile, MISSILE ! Since when the enemy had missiles !?

"Deploy all anti-air defense system! We're under attack! " Shouted Lu Ganghu. His previous arrogant dissapeared.

"Where did they attack from ?" Screamed Augustin Arceneaux.

Panic — "How come didn't we detect them earlier?"

The order was executed rapidly. A tense buzzer rang across the base. Resting soldiers also rushed into their defense position, loading their SAMs and SPAAGs.

"Radar station report! Three waves of missiles totaling 48,000 and increasing, coming from all directions at high altitude! Distance 400 km! At approximately 5000 km/h."

48 THOUSANDS!

Horror was evident on their faces.

This was a trap! No, a slaughterhouse and they were about to be slaughtered!

"Shoot them down!" Paused. "No, it's too late now. Evacuating all forces back to GATE."

UEADF had a very powerful multi-tiered missile defense system base on the one in Israel, but the magnitude of the attack was simply too large. Thousands upon thousands of A-6 rockets and 420mm HE shells pierced through the Arrow-2 missile defense line then the David's Sling defense line and finally the famous Iron Dome.

In Alnus Base, it was possible, assuming they were looking in the correct direction, that some of the troops might have seen the blur shapes hurling toward them, so large were these 420mm shells.

Long before their first shots landed, the gun crews began the laborious reload cycle following a drill that have been completely familiar to them. In only six minutes or so, each of the 2000, Helblaster Volley Guns fired 55 times, a total of 990,000 420mm rounds ; combined with 576,000 A-6 rockets from 1000 A-6 Helstorm Multiple Rocket Launchers rained down on a 1200 square kilometer area with Alnus Hill at the epicenter, luckily long range artillery have CEP (circular error probable - the radius within which 50% of the shots impact) of 900 m so most of them missed their target.

The barrage of heavy artillery bombardment finally stopped, however by this time tens of thousands of soldiers had died and the UEADF army formation was in chaos. During that time, sixteen UEADF armored/mechanized divisions ceased to exist, eleven more became combat ineffective because while most of the troops successfully retreated back to GATE and survived, they were forced to give up all their heavy equipment on their run.

When the survivors emerged from whatever shelter had somehow saved them from the fate of most of their squad mates, they were treated to sights that few men ever see; 141-ton tanks had been thrown through the air and now lay upside down, or on their sides, in one case a Type-92 Chamberlain superheavy tank had been flipped through the air to land on top of a Type-47 Sheridan heavy tank.

---

1188th Combined Division, 7th Praetorian Corps, 42km West of Alnus

Tribuni Dehan Haa Dushi and his men waited patiently in their well-camouflaged underground tunnel for hours. Their hearts ached as they watched helplessly from afar the massacre of the 901st Reserve Division at the hands of the US 1st Armored Division. Their resolve, however had never been stronger, the humans would pay dearly for their crime; and they, the men from 1188th, would be the ones who make them pay.

They did not have to wait long as their order to counterattack came to Division HQ in conjunction with the massive rocket attack at exactly 3:07 local time.

"Don' forget boy; A Dushi is always patriotic, and will never shirk from duty." Dehan recalled what his great-grandfather had told him repeatedly. Now it was his time to fulfill his sacred duty to his country. May Hardy bless his soul! Yao, my beloved little sister, Big brother did this for you; Field of Emroy, here I come!

"Anti-Aircraft Archers, shoot those iron dragonflies out of our sky!"

At his order, 27 Artemis Magic Ballistas in his battalion revealed themselves and simultaneously opened fire on the AH-64 Apache attack helicopters flying over the tanks.

On his cockpit, second lieutenant Sheldon was about to congratulate his gunner when something caught the corner of his eye. A bright red spark snapped into existence from behind the wood line and hurled towards the helicopter at high speed. Years of training and combat forced Sheldon's mind to comprehend the spark as the only natural thing it could be.

"SAM!"

Just as Sheldon yelled the warning over the radio, the S-1 Ajax magic guided explosive javelin collided with the front of the AH-64 Apache. The javelin exploded with the force of 92 kg of C-4, turning it into a falling fireball. Dozens of other helicopters nearby also met the same fate.

"Jesus Christ! What the fuck!?" Terrified by the sudden wave of heat and bright light from the exploding helicopters, Sergean Benitez slammed on the brakes forcing the 141 tonnes tank to jerk to a halt.

"Harley 88 are hit! I repeat, Harley 88 are hit!"

"Say again? Harley 88 are hit?!"

"What? Nobody said anything about these fuckers having MANPADS !"

"Cut the chatter and maintain your sectors of fire!" Brigadier General Summering was pissed off and someone was going to pay for it.

"Rhino Six, find the fuckers yet ?! Kill them all!" Summering snarled.

"On the way!"

The M-370 MRLS battery unleashed a salvo of 144 M31A2 GMLRS rockets with 200 lb (91 kg) high-explosive unitary warhead towards the trees line.

Summering watched through his thermals with anticipation as the GMLRS rockets whistled through the air and towards the hidden enemy. But to his disappointment, his opponent, Dehan Haa Dushi had prepared his countermeasure.

In a massive flash of light and steam, the Quebeco Armored Ogres regiment transformed into enormous size beasts. Towering over the landscape at the high of 60 meters, the Titan Ogres raised their 3 meter-thick shield over their heads. The sheer size of these shields provide cover for the Ogres and their allies on the ground. It was in that moment that all human present learned the true meaning of the word 'Titan'.

Satisfied, Tribuni Dehan stuck a middle finger up. "Die, MotherFucker!"

"Our turn; heavy ogres move forward; cavalry charge to the enemy's rear; Vicker units suppress enemy fire power; anti-tank units fire at will !'

Brigadier General Summering could feel the tide of battle began to change as the 28 cm anti-tank shells began to explode all around them creating large craters. Large caliber rounds bounced off the tank's thick armour creating pinging and plodding sound; Annoying, but could be worse. His force was being attack from all side by a well-trained and heavily-armed enemy.

In the front, the ground shook violently as 30,000 tonnes Titan Armored Ogres charged towards his men at increasing speed. From both sides, counterattacks by battalion size Titan formations, armed with 78mm Vicker rapid fire cannon, managed to inflict serious reversals on advanced units of the 2rd Armored Combat Brigade, which were soon cut off and pocketed then subjected to all around heavy attack.

"Fuckkk, these Fuckers are everywhere!"

"Don't let them get close; Keep Firing!"

"I'm hit... I'm hit!"

Panicking and broken conversations filled the radio. The rain of 78×560-mm ammunition the enemy were firing from the back of Cart Titans couldn't do much to the Type-92 super-heavy tanks but were more than enough to tear through the lightly armored infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers. Not to mention the enemy Centaur Titans Cavalry were about to surround them from behind.

They were seriously outnumbered and outgunned; without close air support (CAS), they had to retreat or very soon be annihilated.

Thus, Summering ordered their retreat.

Upon receiving order, the tanks ran backwards before turning back to form a wide arrow formation to break through the enemy's encirclement.

The 36th Artillery Battalion tried their best to silence the enemy 28 cm Volley Guns but it was a lot harder than it seemed. While the 36th Artillery Battalion had the advantage in both accuracy and range, they also had to hit a very well defended target surrounded by concrete blast walls and the Empire had a lot more more guns than them. The fight was made even more difficult with the sudden introduction of thirty 440mm anti-fortress guns, ten 300mm anti-ship guns along with thirty 42 cm howitzers from the nearby enemy formation.

Sergeant Diego's tank was hit by a 300mm AP (Armor Piercing) round right in the front; he could hear a very loud metallic piercing thud, followed by ringing / deafness in the ears as his tank was flipped over. The sound was so loud it rendered him deaf. The pressure of the blast knocked the wind out of his lungs. Whirling pieces of white hot shrapnel spraying in every direction, cutting up and embedding in everything. The smell of cordite, oil, and smoke mixed with blood were overpowering. Diego screamed to another over open mics, of course, no one was able to hear a thing. His driver and gunner were wounded or killed and most likely be mutilated with blood, guts and brains everywhere.

It only getting worse from there as Summering couldn't make contact with headquarter to call for support. Something terribly wrong had happened there. He tried his best to maintain an orderly retreat but the 1188th Division were simply too fast and persistent, they had him completely surrounded. What really sealed their fate though, was the arrival of two more enemy divisions; the 817th and 973rd Combined Divisions.

With no realistic chance of escape that did not involve destroying much of his division, with a heavy heart, Brigadier General Summering ordered his men to surrender, thus becoming the first prisoners of this war.

Summering prayed to God that this was the right decision.

The Holy Alliance Command Center, Fort Wilhelm, 700 Km North Of Alnus Hill.

At the conference room of the Fort, a spacious room with a huge screen, Grand Duke Shalenko, Epistrategos Luflus and Epistrategos Mokzas were watching the ongoing battle with absolute elation. Using a new magical device, the Empire was able to project images from the Warg unit's mind onto the screen thus greatly enhanced their situation awareness.

"Well shot! Well shot!"

"Hahaha.. run..Run.. cowards!"

"Hahaha.. beautiful fire, beautiful fire!"

Shalenko's ambush plan had succeeded beyond even his wildest hopes, inflicting losses that were on a scale close to WW II battles than anything seen by the Allies since 1945. While the "Human" had a toehold on the Motherland, the Grand Duke and his trusted comrades were certain that the decadent Earthlings would pay heavily for every inch of land and sue for terms and end the War once and for all now that the cost was so clear to them.

Shalenko together with every junior officers present at the emergency staff meeting held during the battle, listened to the reports of UEADF personal and heavy weaponry losses like they were watching a Gladiator match, roaring with pleasure when informed thousands of UEADF metal beasts had been destroyed ( probably a reference to the many Type-92 Chamberlain tank and Type-47 Sheridan tank, were destroyed after taking multiple hits from 650 mm rocket from A-6 Helstorm Multiple Rocket Launcher battery combine with 420 mm shells of Helblaster Volley Gun batteries).

October 16 - 2029, UEADF's HQ, Tokyo, Japan.

Countless casualty reports started comming back from the other side of the GATE mid of the chaos; Now the full scale of the Alnus disaster began to sink in with the people at High Command. This was like Pearl Harbour all over again, only this time, it was on land and a hundred times worse.

How could this happen was the question in everyone mind.

Had they missed any sign?

Supreme Commander of Allied Force, Liam Nuttall, suddenly understand the feeling of President Roosevelt on that dreadful day of december 7th 1941 when most of the Facific Fleet was damaged by Japanese air raid.

"How bad is it?" US President uttered. He was still in shock by the news. This wasn't suppose to happen on the second day of the War, voters would kill him in the next midterm elections.

"Mr. President; our best estimate based on ULTRON's modeling shows that the damage from the October 15, 2029 attacks is: 25,447 killed; 60,883 injured, missing or captured; for a totaling casualties number of 86,330. In terms of equipment, we lost 7,360 tanks, 47,416 guns and mortars; and...3,549 aircraft of all kinds (mostly attack helicopers)."

"Jesus Christ, that is Battle of Kursk level of casualties!"

"Sir, the casualties at Battle of Kursk is close to a million, this is more like Battle of Normandy or Battle of the Bulge." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff tried to lighten the mood.

Turn his angry sight towards him.

"You," Dirrel snarled. "Really thinks the public will care for historical fact, after we lost over Seven Thousand tanks in less a hour and were forced to run home with a tail between our legs. Think Mark, think! This is a fucking disaster!"

"We need to get back immediately, we can't show weakness in front of the public." The Chairman of the Federal Republic of China demanded immediate action.

"Let's not risk another disaster, we must act carefully." EU Prime Minister urged caution. One more disaster like this and there would be riots at home.

"How could this happen?" India Prime Minister questioned.

"We underestimated the enemy's ability and readiness, thus paying a heavy price for it!" Liam Nuttall said bluntly; no point beating around the bush in this situation.

'So what is your solution?" Russian Chancellor wanted a plan.

"We're mobilizing Bomber Command to conduct a mass airstrike on all known enemy locations. The Eighth and Twentieth Combined Air Force will lead the way."

"Why not just nuked those bastards with missiles." Brazilian President angrily asked.

"Mr. President, there are over a thousand missile bases around a 400 km radius of Alnus, nuking them all will surround our base with radioactive cloud. We must do this conventionally." Nuttall explained why detonated one thousand nuclear weapons near your own base is a horrible ideal.

"So, one thousand missile bases, each requiring three bombers and 12 fighter escorts to knock out, for a total of 15,000 aircrafts. Flying through a hole one mile across. What will prevent the enemy from shooting down our plane in transit ?" The Russian Prime Minister raised a serious issue.

"Mr. Putin made a good point." Dirrel added. "How do we stop them from blasting our bomber out of the sky by targeting the GATE."

"Mr. President; based on reports, the enemy fired salvos of mostly unguided rockets. They can't accurately hit such a small target; of course due to the sheer volume of fire, some will hit; especially if they shoot in calculated pattern to maximize the impact. That will mean thousands of plane at risk so we must concentrate all our anti-missile system we have at Alnus; I means Everything, from the SM-2, SM-3, Patriot., Iron Dome, Iron Beam, Arrow 2 to the S-300P, S-300V, S-300PMU-1/2 , S-400 Triumf , S-500 Prometey. If it can shoot down a rocket, I want it there."

Paused for a second, Nuttall proceed. "Naturally, the enemy will try to stop us so we also need a strike team to escort the SAM."

---

October 18 - 2029, Alnus Hill, Falmart

Under the cover of the night, led by a group of armored bulldozers and amtracs the Sikhs reached the GATE itself at 0005 hours, after which they spent the night clearing debris, filling bomb craters and removing destroyed vehicles then set up new facilities. Despite the best efforts of the units sent to defend the GATE facilities, 70% of the bulldozers and other material handling equipment in the GATE area were destroyed and a number of trains were destroyed, blocking the railway. Losses among the commando and UDT teams exceeded sixty percent of the men involved.

While the losses to the special warfare units were crippling, as were the losses to the ground forces (which took a total of 26,501 casualties, including 5170 killed in action), the Allied had regained a functional, if badly damaged, FOB base. It was a significant victory, one that would bear much fruit in the battle to come.

At Fort Wilhelm.

"My Lords, the enemy has return in mass again."

"As expected; Released the mindless Titans !" Mokzas ordered.

With those words, the second phase began. From various well-concealed underground camp millions of mindless Titans climbed out of their hiding place and rushed to UEADF base. Various in size from 15m to 60m, the mindless Titans formed tidal waves of destruction heading toward the newly rebuilt base.

"Titans, move on and destroy all obstacles. Long range artillery, fire!" Screamed an old Dwarven Legatus.

Wearing thick diving helmets with the shock absorber covering their heads and neck, the army of mindless Titans continued their orderly march towards their target. As they dashed closer, they could see a recently planned white sign written in Falmartian Latin.

"Warning, this land belongs to the UEA, keep the distance or we will use force to eliminate any threat."

"These invader think that they can scare us with those pathetic words, this lands will not belong to them soon or later they will be expelled from this world." Said an Immanity Centurion.

On the Alnus Hill. JGSDF Lt. General. Yōji Itami and US Army Lt. General. Tommy Kennedy are observing the march formation of the enemy Titan armies in front of them not far from here via drone.

In the sky above them, countless yellow explosions lit up the heaven like thousands of shooting stars creating a spectacular light show like nothing ever seen before. Each of those 'stars' was a human missile successfully intercepted an enemy rocket or shell.

Right behind them, batteries of Standard High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (SHIMARS) launched one salvo after another of MGM-140 ATACMS, OTR-21 Tochka, 9K720 Iskander, Fateh-313 and Dong-Feng 11 short-range ballistic missile to suppress enemy's supporting artillery with mediocre results as the enemy moved really fast.

"Damn, it feels like we're fighting against an army of giant football players..." Kennedy commented on the Titans' helmets.

Then, they shaking head to each other as an agreement.

"Everyone! Prepare your MLRS now!" Kennedy commanding his MLRS units to preparing their weapon, "Range of the enemy is 29,000 m away from here, set it to 29,000 m range!"

"Rockets loaded; 29,000 m distance, done!"

"Open fire…now!"

"What's those things ?" Asked an imperial soldier from a far away.

In a few seconds, the first wave of mindless Titans received a barrage of M36 Artillery Rocket from the M370 MLRS.

The M36 rocket was the main ammunition of the M370 MLRS; Each M36 rocket carries up to dual purpose 2,576 M77 DPICM submunitions detonated by impact at a maximum range of 64 km. Employing the M77 submunitions a M36 rocket could cover an area of 0.92 square kilometers.

They were used in conjunction with the famous Russian-made TOS-1D 320mm Multiple Incendiary Thermobaric Rocket Launcher to devastating effect, nearly wiping out the first wave of the Titan tsunami but ultimately only made less than 30,000 kill - Titans with limbs and lower torsos blown off could still advance and regenerated quickly so long as they had an intact eye and nape and some means to drag themselves forward.

As the mindless Titans swarm became more tightly packed, the MLRS lost some of its effectiveness, with Colossus Titans' thick shields forming testudo formations reducing the possibility of a head wound significantly.

The second barrage came from Type 99 240 mm Self-Propelled Howitzers stationed on a hill to the rear of the tanks. They fired fragmentation shells which had even less of an effect than the MLRS salvos.

Aside from the direct physical impacts, artillery strikes also depended on the "balloon effect," which by proximity to an explosion would cause the liquid in the victim's body to burst. This did not occur, however, because of the Titan's coagulated blood together with their super regeneration and enormous size. Therefore, SNT (Sudden Nerve Trauma), which "just shuts down vital organs like God flickin' a light switch," did not happen either.

After this, the towed artillery, armor and air support opened fire on the "Tidal waves of mindless Titans". Firing on the Titans were the full might of 7 Field Armies of United Earth Alliance. Type-92 Chamberlain and Type-47 Sheridan tanks, 203 mm M195 railguns, Oshkosh's L-ATV, 180mm mortars and several hundreds of AH-64X Apache, Ka-52 Alligator and CAIC Z-12 attack helicopters.

All of these held sustained fire for a time in what was likened to "a meatgrinder, or a wood chipper... Until they themselves were destroyed in the enemy's counter-battery fires. Their forces were concentrated too close together, leaving no room to maneuver.

Anti-Tank rounds like HEAT or Sabot shells have great effect on the individual Titan, but there were simply too many Titans wearing thick helmets which mean on a larger scale they had little to no effect on the swelling tide of mindless Titans.

Sky Above Lemuria

The sun began to set and the horizon was slightly bright. A bombardment squadron flew in the darkening sky, one among a thousand similar squadrons of the 8th , the 11th, the 15th, and the 20th Combined Air Force. Each of these squadron had 1 Tu-688 nuclear-powered ultra heavy bomber, 2 B-36Z heavy bombers, and 12 J-86 fighters flew in front for escort.

The Tu-688 had 25 GBU-57A/B bunker busters in its bomb bay while the B-36Z had 4 Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power Bombs. Far behind them, an early warning plane was flying. Receive information from Boeing E-3M Sentry in real time, and wirelessly command the attacking unit from the base.

For this operation, this heavy bomber attack squadron was called A1-077, and the J-86 unit escorting the heavy bomber attack corps was called A2-077.

"A1-077 this is Air Command, we are under heavy fire, conduct bombardment on enemy position immediately."

"A2-077 this is Air Command, A2-077 this is Air Command, the enemy interceptors from the enemy bases are on their way. Shoot down enemy interceptors. Repeat. Shoot down enemy interceptors."

Distance 190km, speed 2300 km/h.

After receiving the order via radio. UEADF's proud air supremacy fighter, J-86, who were escorting the heavy bombers, ignited the afterburner, and two flames came out from each fighter in the dark night sky.

The rapidly accelerating J-86 jet fighters separated from Tu-688 bombers and disappeared to the west.

As the United Earth Alliance Air Defense Force's J-86 fighters from the UEADF Alnus Base patrolled the surrounding area, the Boeing E-3M Sentry detected approaching aerial units. Half of those blips went to the A1-077 formation while the other half seemed to be guarding the enemy base's airspace.

The number of bright blips on the radar was 140, which was such an overwhelming number. Moreover their number was not just large, their speed was up to 2000 km per hour, each of them had a wingspan of 100 meter so it can be guessed that these were aerial units with fighting capabilities equal to a battleship.

The enemy flying formations present significant threat thus nuclear tipped AMRAAM would be used.

About 12 UEAADF J-86 fighters were flying towards the Titan Griffins formation. Their objective was to secure air supremacy above the enemy base airspace while at the same annihilate any enemy air units.

The squadron of J-86 had already detected a large number of air units comming toward them. The pilots followed the standard operating procedure in a swift and precise manner and prepared to engage the targets.

Their distance to the targets was already less than 100 km and inside the missiles' effective range.

From the radio communicators, a clear order was stated.

「Open fire!」

The solid fuel on the missiles equipped on the 12 J-86 began to ablaze. From both hardpoints under the wings of the J-86, 24 medium-range AIM-125 nuclear tipped missiles were launched and then immediately flying at the Mach 5 speed.

With a thunderous roar, they zoomed over the sky to destroy the Titan Griffins that were flying

A fraction of a second later the AIM-125's 15kt warhead detonated, marking the first combat use of a nuclear weapon in Falmart.

The Titan Griffins formation was, not surprisingly, devastated. Any Titan Griffins were within the 100 meter instant kill radius of those weapon would instantly caught fire or suffered structural collapse from the massive overpressure of the detonation.

These Griffins were the lucky ones, with their real body killed also instantly. The remaining unlucky Titan Shapeshifters, survived the initial blast, but they exposed to a extremely large amount of radiation. They were also, uniformly blinded by the sudden, utterly unexpected and totally unimaginable, appearance of a second sun less than a half mile off the nose of their Titan Griffins wings.

"A1-077 this is A2-077, we have eliminate the enemy air unit, your are free to act, over."

"A2-077 this is A1-077, solid copy on your last, move away from your current position, we will deploy the payload now. How copy?"

"A1-077 this is A2-077, solid copy on all, give them Hell."

A total of 25 GBU-57A/B bunker busters were dropped from the Tu-688 super heavy bomber at an altitude of 15,000 meters. Each of the 14,000 kg bomb hit the Imperial Rocket Artillery complex with deadly accuracy — Rocket Artillery Silo No 057. A few seconds later those bombs exploded violently creating a shimmering wall of dust hundred of meters high silencing the artillery forever. To made sure, 8 Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power Bombs (FOAB) were dropped from the B-36s right into the cloud of dust creating 8 giant fireballs that sucked up all the air in the area.

"Target Destroyed."

"Good job, Team." Squadron Leader Major Ray Basoon congratulated everyone for their success but then discoverd something strange on the radar. Thousands of aerial units the size of a school bus were rising !? and rising fast.

"Fourty thousand meters," His co-pilot said. "fifty, fifty five, sixty, sixty five, seventy!"

"Seventy five thousand meters and keep rising! What the heck are those things !?" Whatever those thing were, they could fly higher than his plane, much higher. Like some kind of high-altitude weather balloons.

"Air Command this is A1-077, detecte a large number of enemy aerial units, distance 700 km. Altitude 105 thousand meters and keep rising. Alert the missile defense." There was no way for his J-86s or any other jet fighters except for the SR-73 Darkstar scramjets for the to shoot down something flying that high.

Alnus Hill, Falmart

The Titan hordes continue to close in thus J-100 fighter bombers launched AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) and AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), dropping hundreds of thousands of explosive devices. On the ground, more than 700,000 switchblade 600 drones were also launched.

The bombing run and drone attack decimated the oncoming wave and resulted in a few moments of eerie silence as the dazed and confused soldiers recovered from the shock of the nearby explosions.

However, even more Titans with thick helmet shuffled up the road to take their place.

At that point the battle started turned into utter chaos, as the soldiers on the ground saw an oncoming wave of millions more Titans emerging from the smoke clouds from the bombs that had taken out the first half a million. Reconnaissance images from the DeltaQuad VTOL fixed wing surveillance UAV system still showed a horde of nearly 6 millions mindless Titans stretching back into the horizont.

To turned the tide of battle the UEADF using the returning Tu-688s to drop the entire arsenal of 25 thousands "The Father of All Bombs" (FOAB) on the Titans hoping to neutralize the Titans surrounding Alnus in one sweep. The thermobaric bombs accomplished their purpose of destroying the majority of Titans on the battlefiel.

However the joy was short-live because the enemy next suprise.

The situation seemed to progress as planned for the Holy Empire Army, the mindless Titans was fighting against modern forces distracting many of their enemy firepower from the main thrust.

Despite the success of devastating the enemy's army, the battle is being more bloody than many would expect. Approximately 60,000 soldiers had died because of the great artillery that only through pure firepower of the entire bomber fleets that they could be quickly defeated.

But as always things can get worse quickly.

At a depth of 12 meters underground of Alnus Base there were thousand of 27 meters long Graboid worms. Under command from Grand Duke Shalenko they had taken advantage of the distracted UEADF army and dug underground under their feet. Each Graboid carried 5-ton of explosive in their stomach ready to explode.

"Our time has come ! Tell the troops, detonated the Graboids then follow their tunnel and attack." Ordered Grand Duke Shalenko.

In some places it felt like little tremors, it was not necessary to think too much to know what was going to happen. Hundred of massive explosions rocked the base. The Graboids suicide attacks proved to be very effective. It caused more than 70,000 casualties and threw the base defence into utter chaos.

"They're coming out of the ground." screamed a wounded Indian soldier.

After those words, Praetorian Guards with Type XII thunder spear and a Type VII lightning trident, Centaurs Cavalry with Type VIII magic crossbow, Warrior Bunny assassins with the cloak of invisibility, Armored Ogres carrying Vicker rapid fire cannon and Mithril Gollems began to leave the earth trying to kill everything in their path using magic and brute strength, although they were not the only beings that appeared.

The strongest version of the golems, the Mithril Golems was a great threat that caused quite a few casualties before being destroyed by being as resistant as a heavy modern tank. The Graboid great worms that were 27 meters long with armored heads quickly attack then return to earth, any soldiers who were not in a solid place were in danger of being devoured. The last ones were the fire salamander that had the ability to dig like the grabiodes and had two types of explosive magic: a low-power lightning shockwave fired from its horns and a single high-powered explosive magic only that was threw fire from their mouths like the Wyvern but less powerful.

This unexpected and surprising attack caused serious casualties and the only thing that prevented it from becoming a total massacre was how slow the majority of Imperial army came off the ground and the predictability of their attacks helped contain the majority of the attack exceptions were the last three.

The nightmare hadn't end, however.

In the sky, the Haunebu I Void Lantern fleet quickly approached Alnus Base. Thanks to the extremely high service ceiling, AAA guns and jet interceptors could not reach them, worse, their SAM inventory were almost exhausted, the only option left was the A-235 anti-ballistic missile with the XW-77 400 kt warhead. High altitude nuclear explosions would have minimal fallout but they had to do it now, before the enemy paratroopers entering the troposphere.

For the Royal Parachute Corps, things also didn't go as planned for them.

It was the wingsuit men of the 101st Parachute Division who realized just how badly the situation was, as XW-77 warhead exploded all around them with the heat of the sun, sometimes before even separating from the void lantern.

Overall, only one in four of the paratroopers survived the HALO jumps (the 103rd Parachute Division was effectively wiped out, with only 680 survivors of the roughly 7000 men who flew into action that day). The paratroopers from the 102nd Parachute Division also suffered serious losses even before they could exit their void lantern due to A-235 anti-ballistic missiles.

The remaining SAMs also caused a number of void lantern to lose formation and disoriented a number of the pilots, who had little or no experience operating the machine. This led to a number of mini-disasters, including several airborne collisions, pilots ordering men out too soon or too late and other void lantern where men were deployed at speeds far greater than safe.

The resulting landings, rather than depositing paratroopers in something approaching organized formation scattered parachutists across the area like salt from a shaker. What had been designed to be a 20 divisions fist to the Alnus Base defenders jaw was reduced to a series of pin pricks.

Seeing the disappointing results, the Draconian Legion, after transforming into the Titan Wyvern Lords, decided instead of attacking by air using fireballs, they decided to support the ground forces by dropping giant flechettes like heavy bombers with devastating effect.

The number of casualties on both sides continue to increase dramatically in the next few hours.

---

Aftermath

The total losses from the actions between 13th and 19th October, 2029 were, even with 12 years of preparation, mind numbing. Total Allied casualties from all three waves of attack exceeded 620,000 men, including nearly 130,000 killed in action.

Imperial troops, mithril golems, war beasts and mindless Titans losses ( mainly Armored Titan, but also Warhammer Titan, Beast Titan, Jaw Titan and Colossus Titan) are estimated to have been nearly 9 million with nearly 99,9% of that complete destroyed and less than 9,000 total prisoners taken.

To provide perspective, American losses on the 18th of October, 2029, exceed those for any YEAR of the 1941–1945 Pacific War. Not just personnel losses, UEADF Vanguard Army Group had also lost well over half of their modern tanks inside of the Alnus Hill region during the First Battle of Alnus Hill, many of them never getting off the flatcars which were being used for transport.

Statistics:

UEADF:

Combat forces: at the beginning 520,000, at the end 1,000,000 troops.

Lost: 129,860 KIA

Injured: 491,923 men.

Nearly over 15,000 damaged or disabled vehicles in various stages of repair/recovery

Falmart:

Main Combat Forces: 100 divisions

Mindless Titan Auxiliary Forces : 400 divisions; eight million mindless titans.

Lost: All, except for 6,500 defectors and 9,000 prisoners.

Public opinion about the Battle of Alnus was very divided. On the other hand, if you count the numbers alone, this is certainly a great military victory. But on the other hand, the loss in both men and materials were enormous. The Holy Empire had proved itself to be a tough nut to crack, some people feared that the UEADF would bleed white even with massive international renforcement.

The Allied leaders began to reconcile themselves to the reality that the flickering hope of a continent-wide collapse of Imperial resistant due to overwhelming technologies of the modern military was nothing but a naive dream, the War would have to be won with steel and blood, not pamphlets. From now on tactical nuclear weapons would be widely used to extinguish the enemy resistant.