Chapter 77 – A Literal Slugfest

RonTheBlackCat

Read some of the recent comments. I would like to thank you all for the supportive comments and critiques! Also, my college is making me write an essay before class even starts XD woe is me. 

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1350 May 15th, 2020 CE

0955 Sun 45th, 196 AE

Port City of Filanneas

Issac snorted in annoyance. “Seems to be a bunch of elven civilians who tried to blow us up with dynamite.”

Issac’s team leader, Andrew Bennet shook his head. “Sheesh, we can’t get any rest.”

Corey Sharp, the team leader of the other team of the squad, commented. “Well, at least most of the fighting has died down. The elves can’t see us.”

Jacob shrugged and waved forward. “Still good to have a technological advantage. Come on, let's go.”

As they walked down the road, Issac spoke again. “Do you know what's surprising?”

Andrew looked at Issac. “What?”

“We haven’t seen a single elven military personnel. I think the fucking elven civilians got abandoned.”

“Hm. Probably. Unless they are all fighting in plain clothes.” 

Jacob nodded. “They seem more like civilians. Heck they don’t seem to even know our weapon capabilities”

Issac chuckled. “Do they even know they got abandoned?”

“Well, they are probably so fanatic they don’t even care that their entire military abandoned them.” 

The fighting had died down so Feon decided to go on his usual nightly stroll. His friend had died and he was all alone. He walked past a few human soldiers wearing strange things on their heads that covered their eyes. One of the human soldiers spoke to the other. “Hey, arrest that old elf.”

“He hasn’t done anything wrong though?”

“Who knows, he could be hiding something. I’m not taking any chances.”

Feon only stared as the human approached him with a gun pointed at him. Feon raised his hands slowly. The human grabbed him. 

A few hours earlier

He shook his head as he stared at his dead friend. He didn’t bend down since he knew he probably won’t be able to stand back up that easily. “You would have probably lived if you didn't decide to fight.”

He was surprised that the humans didn’t kill him and just ignored him. He thought he would have been surely dead by now. If not for a human actually killing him, then by an accidental shot or stray bullet. 

Present

The city was completely pitch black, the magibatteries that powered the city had been destroyed during the battle. About a few decades ago, large magibattaries were built outside of cities. They were fueled daily by elves who had time and wanted some money. Elves were paid every time they came to fuel the magibatteries and there would usually be many filled magibatteries in reserve. Although they were not targeted by airstrikes since they seemed to be just large metal boxes, the battle had destroyed many of them. Using the light given off by those with fire magic, nurses and doctors tended to the wounded. Half a street was filled with the wounded. An uninjured elf ran into the street and started shouting. “Get out of here! Go!”

A nearby nurse confronted him. “What? Why? We have a lot of injured here.”

He pointed back to where he came from. “The humans are advancing.”

The nurse blinked in surprise. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“I know. They don’t seem bothered by it and they can see us. We tried to ambush them using the darkness but it didn’t work.”

Hearing this, the nurses and doctor started rushing. “Move these patients! Come quickly!”

“Get the stretchers!” 

Suddenly, they heard a chopping noise. The uninjured elf shouted in a panic. “Take cover! Human aircraft!”

The pilot looked at the ground from his AH-1Z Viper. 

<<<”Hawk 1-1. This is Hawk 1-3. Seems to be medical personnel tending to the wounded down there. We will refrain from firing on this area. Over.”

“Copy that. Proceed with your scouting.”>>>

A rocket shot towards the Viper. The pilot’s eyes widened. “Shit! RPG!”

The Viper banked to the left and the rocket narrowly missed. Another rocket flew towards them and missed also.  

<<<”This is Hawk 1-3! We are under heavy fire from RPGs. We are getting out of here.”>>>

The Viper reeled back and turned.

On the ground

Finn looked around at his weary squad. “We are only a few blocks into the city. At this point, it's gonna take us a week to reach the center.”

One of his squadmates shrugs. “The elves would lose their will to fight sooner or later. If we deal enough casualties, they will probably give up.” 

"I hate fanatics."

"You can say that again."

1444 May 15th, 2020 CE

1022 Sun 45th, 196 AE

Outside of the city

Brandon waved to the city behind him. The sound of gunfire made it hard to hear what he was saying. “You can see that even during the night, the battle continues to be raged. Here I have been told that we have a distinct advantage with night vision goggles. Most of the soldiers around me have them on. I’m currently hoping to be able to get into the city but have been stopped from doing so.” 

Flashes of light came from the city. An explosion rocked the sky. Brandon looked behind him as he saw soldiers pointing towards the area. “Oh my god. Is that a helicopter?” 

A few minutes earlier

An elf peeked out the window. He had been able to remain hidden in his house without the humans finding him. He looked up into the sky and tightly held his PAM. 

An AH-1Z hovered in the sky above the city. The battle raged a couple blocks further into the city. 

<<<“Hawk 1-2. Hold position. Prepare to support your street. Stay sharp and stay as far back as you can. The elves might fire RPGs at you.” 

“Understood, we will… ah fuck! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Our tail rotor got hit by an RPG! We are going down! FUC...”>>>

The Viper started spinning out of control as its tail rotor was in flames. It crashed into a building beside it. 

Washington D.C.

“30 casualties in a day for a couple of blocks of a city? We also lost an attack helicopter?! On fucking national television!?”

General Quincy Griffith spoke in a raspy voice. “The elves are fighting for every single street and almost every house. We have pulled back our AH-1Zs.” He paused. “We will continue taking heavy casualties if we don't do anything, Mr. President.”

“I know what you are thinking, General. We are not leveling the city or any other city as a matter of fact. We aren’t there to do an extermination. I’m allowing precision strikes on any houses with hostiles in them.”

“This won’t be enough, sir. Give me the authorization to bomb the city at will and I guarantee our casualties would hit rock bottom.”

“I will not approve that.” 

"Sir. My men are dying here." 

"I know. I'm the Commander in Chief. Those are my men too."

Port City of Filanneas

Fighting had stretched further into the night. The elves gave much more ground because they were exhausted and couldn’t see that well in the darkness. Elves that tried to use fire magic to see were instantly shot. A Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) set down his laser designator. “I’m painting the house.”

“Keep it on there.”

Intense amounts of gunfire had been pouring out from the house and with the lack of support, the Marines haven’t been able to push through it. 

A jet zipped through the sky above Brandon. 

A pilot surveyed the ground as his AV-8B Harrier II got closer and closer to the city. The AV-8B Harrier II is quite an old plane and has been with the Marines since 1985. However, it was the only jet in the US arsenal other than the F-35B that could do vertical takeoff. The last of the Harrier IIs were planned to be retired by 2025. 

A GBU-12 dropped out from the Harrier over the city. It started directing itself towards the laser. A blast soon destroyed the building that the laser had pointed at. 

A group of elves stood together conversing with each other with worried tones. Human soldiers stood around them on guard. One of the human soldiers talked to the other. “Why do we have so many elves here?”

“Some of them surrendered and some of them didn’t even fight.”

“Why are we rounding up the ones who didn’t even fight.”

“Precautions. They all seem to be fanatics.”

“So how is this gonna work?”

“From what I have heard, we are gonna assign them houses away from the front and keep an eye on them. Keeps them safe from the fighting and allows us to keep ourselves safe.” 

“What about the slaves we freed? Where are they?”

“They will also be assigned housing but there will be helicopters coming after the battle is over to evac them.” 

1048 Sun 45th, 196 AE

A prison in the Magus Imperium

Simon sat in his prison cell hungry. He wasn’t sure what the time was since he had no windows in his cell but he was pretty sure it was night. The humans had given him very little food. But he was among the lucky ones. He hasn’t been beaten by the guard yet. A lot of elves in the prison had bruises on them. The prison was also spacious enough to handle almost all the elves so it wasn't cramped. He read a newspaper that was given to him. Although newspapers were published every day, the guards only handed them out once in a while. Sometimes the news was old. This time, he had a recent paper.  Emblazoned on the top of the front page in the human Imperial language was “Invasion of the Elven Nation has Begun!”. It talked about how the US and Magus forces are landing in the Elven Nation. As he read, he wondered when he could return home. Although he was single, he still had a mother and father home. He was greatly worried about them, especially in this situation. 

Mountain Ranges near the Galath Mountain

In the darkness of the night, elves moved about making fortifications and placing sandbags. Anti-magipanzer thauguns were put into fortified positions. Anti-aircraft thauguns kept an eye on the sky. Every route into the mountains was being blocked with layers and layers of defenses. In green areas, leaves and grass were thrown onto large weapons. In the more frigid and snowy areas, white-colored sheets were placed on.