390 Sucker Punch

United Nations, Northern Front, Right Flank, City of Orwell's Point

The War Room was in a chaotic mess as aides and runners ran in and out bearing messages and tasks. Staff Officers updated the maps and tasking on the boards while radio operators sat facing a bank of radio sets relay information back and fore like a tennis match.

Mills, freshly promoted to take the role of Military Liason with the Governor of Orwell's Point stood beside his, once enemy and rival, now an ally, Captain Judis watching the chaos in the War Room.

"Multiple legions sighted along the 2nd Defense Line!"

"11th Company is requesting for artillery support! They are getting overrun!"

"7th Company is requesting to fall back to the 1st Defense Line!"

"2nd and 3rd Company under attack by unknown numbers of Imperials!"

"Bronze men sightings confirmed! They are attacking the all along the 2nd Defense Line!"

Mills frowned and said, "Those damn Terminators are back..."

"You mean the Bronze Men?" Judis's expression was also bleak as he watched the map getting updated by the staffers. "The 3rd Imperial Army must have gotten reinforcements after their failure with their dragons..."

"I wonder which idiot is commanding the 3rd Imperial Army..." Mills suddenly grinned. "He is actually helping us a lot!"

"Why do you say that?" Judis asked curiously.

"Look at how they attacked us at the start," Mills explained. "Straight up cold steel tactics... Heavy infantry in the front and light troops behind. Very standard Imperial tactics."

Judis nodded as he was very familiar with those tactics. Mills continued, "Next the commander tried some fancy aerial maneuvers with those dragons of his, which I find stupid."

"How so? If we did not have any of those... 'Eh Eh' guns," Judis pronounced the letter A as Eh. "Those dragons would have landed a few legions behind our lines."

"The thing is the more complex an op is," Mills smiled. "The more you will fuck it up."

"He bought us time to get his dragons and men in order," Mills said. "Which allowed our aerial scouts to spot his plans and ready for it."

"Which he literally fed them into our meat grinder..." Mills said. "And now, he is throwing his troops constantly at our line for the past few days."

"Looking at the way the Imperials soldiers are fighting," Mills pointed out. "They are already on their last stretch."

"Even with the reinforcements," Mills shook his head. "Oh, they will definitely break through the 2nd Defense Line. But upon reaching the 1st Defense Line and the Final Line?"

Judis gave a smile and nodded. "Their momentum will die down."

"Yup!" Mills nodded. "Even with those Terminators, we can bogged them down here for weeks!"

"Time is something we have and they don't," Mills grinned. "The middle is still being held strongly by the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Battalion. And the SRM batteries are being diverted to support the middle now that we had won the left flank."

"HQ wants us to be the bait, to draw all their attention here," Mills added. "And that now we are having all their attention here..."

"Our sucker punch is going straight for their Emperor!"

-----

3rd Imperial Army, 136th Magic Support Regiment

Justze Von Aston flinched from the sudden explosion of dirt and flames just several feet away from him. He quickly pulled the excited and curious Ciel into his magic barrier and scowled at her, "Stop running out of the barrier!"

"But! But!" Ciel's eyes were wide and sparkly as she craned her neck left and right trying to watch the ongoing battle before her. "I want to see!"

"See your head!" Justze growled. "I promised your parents to bring you back in one piece!"

"What's that?" Ciel's attention was already away, ignoring his words.

Justze sighed as he made sure to keep Ciel within the effect of his magic barrier. The other mages around them ignored their antics as they were all focused on keeping their own lives. Finally, a gap opened up enough for Ciel and Justze to see the battle before and they were momentarily stunned into silence.

Instead of those glory scenes shown on paintings and plays, the battlefield before them was totally nothing they could ever imagine. Imperial soldiers were mostly on their bellies, crawling forward either half naked or without armor.

The ground was a color between a sort of pink and red caused by the dead that turned the trampled soil into bloody mud. Smoke covered the battlefield and when there was a wind or breeze, it brought a tang of rust and rotten eggs.

Ciel brought a hand to cover her nose from the smell and suddenly she bowled over and vomited out her the contents in her stomach as she saw the gory scene stretched out all over before her view.

"BARRIER UP!" A mage screamed as there was a strange cry coming from the skies and the mages around quickly joined together and overlapped their magic barriers together. They ignored Ciel's mess and squeezed together with the surprised Justze.

A sudden thunderous clap erupted above Justze, Ciel and the mages and a shockwave slammed down, forcing the physically weaker mages to their knees. Justze and Ciel kneeled down on the ground in shock as suddenly all their hearing disappeared.

Justze could see Ciel's mouth moving and a mage behind her seemed to be screaming but he couldn't hear their words. He shook his head in confusion and slowly there was a ringing tone in his ears and he slowly recovered his hearing.

Ciel was sobbing and screaming something. Justze quickly reached out and helped her up before casting a minor healing spell to recover their hearing. The mages around them continued to jostle about and forced them to stay in a group. "KEEP YOUR BARRIERS UP IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!"

Justze grabbed the shocked Ciel and hugged her protectively as the world around them exploded into flames and smoke.

-----

C - 1 Sky Freighter, Skies over the City of Silverton, 1st Marine Battalion, 'A' Company, 3rd Platoon

"STAND UP!" The Platoon Sergeant roared over the drone of the engines. The men on both sides stood up and started to check their gear.

"HOOK UP!" The men snapped their static line to the overhead cable. "EQUIPMENT CHECK!"

As the men sounded off their buddies gear. The aircrew started releasing the restraining straps to the cargo in the middle of the plane. "FIVE MINUTES!"

The rear cargo ramp slowly lowered down and the land below could be seen. The sun had gone up just over an hour ago, and the sun rays left long shadows across the farmland and forests. "ONE MINUTE!"

The cargo master stood on the side of the rear opening and peered out of the plane. The red signal lights suddenly switched to green with a low buzz and the cargo master slammed his fist on the release.

Immediately, the cargo consisting of supplies and the Platoons' ASAGs rolled off the middle track and out of rear ramps one after the other in a mad rush. The pallets and ASAGs once launched off the ramp, deployed triple parachutes as the static lines ripped the cord of the parachute packs.

"GO GO GO!" The cargo master yelled at the two banks of Marines on the side. He stood in the middle of the rear opening and waved his hands for the men to move out.

The Marines on both sides jogged forward and dived off the rear after the pallets one by one. Soon the air was filled with hundreds of parachutes as the air fleet flew over the city of Silverton.

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Outskirts of Silverton, Marine Field HQ

"Right on schedule!" Major Joseph grinned as he observed the small fleet of aircraft over the city deploying the Marines. He turned to his aide and ordered. "Tell all the men to attack now!"

He was pushed to be the field commander of Operation Overlord since he had the most combat experience in city fighting and airborne operations. Now standing in a freshly dug bunker were his command staff was busy giving his orders to the rest of the units, which they had landed in the first and second wave, he felt he finally going to get his revenge against the Emperor.

Marines in digital camo fatigues and face paint slowly emerged out from all forms of cover as the order came down. They advanced in a thin line, surrounding the City still unaware of their presence while other units locked down the roads and bridges leading to the city.

Overhead, grey green balls of parachute floated down towards the city that will soon be shocked by the sudden unexpected attack. Joseph grinned and turned to the radio operator at the side. "Call in the mortars! Let's give them a good wake up call!"

The radio operator grinned and started fiddling with his radio, "Firestorm, Firestorm, Lord Actual is requesting for a mortar barrage on these coordinates!"

Seconds later, the dull thumping of mortars came from over a low rise where the Marines support detachment had dug in the manpack mortars. The mortar teams had long ago sighted their fire with the help of the UAV still circling over the city.

The unaware city suddenly erupted into explosions as predetermined locations of barracks, stables, any city defenses were hit by a barrage of mortar fire. Sounds of bells being struck could soon be heard from Joseph's position and his grin widened as he saw the city on fire.

"All units attack! Take down the Emperor!"

-----

1st Marine Battalion, 'A' Company, 3rd Platoon

Slow came to an abrupt stop as his over 160 kg bulk of muscle and gear slammed onto the cobbled street. He grunted loudly as he bent his knees as trained and did a roll to break his landing, but the hard ground and his gear jabbed him painfully.

Asagi, his little companion spider golem, which landed just before him, came over to help him up and even rolled up his parachute nicely for him. Slow stood up and looked around his surroundings and to his surprise and glee, the residents who were out in the morning were staring at him dumbstruck.

Slow gave a cheerily smile and waved at the Imperial citizens who were confused and frightened by the strange face painted Oerkin that seemed to have dropped out of the skies. Slow looked around to see if he could spot any of his platoon mates where suddenly there was a series of explosions.

"Oh, the party has started!" Slow hefted his MG up just as the city bells started ringing. He eyed the frightened folk around him warily, in case they tried anything funny. And as expected, he heard the heavy stomp of boots coming his way. A small troop of Imperial soldiers appeared and they came to a confused halt at the sight of Slow.

"You there!" The leading Imperial with a red plume on his helm cried out. "Who are you? What is your business here?"

Slow grinned and replied. "My business is death! Eat lead!"

He squeezed the trigger of his MG and spewed fire and lead, riddling the troop of Imperial soldiers with bloody holes. The crowd screamed at the fearsome roar of the MG and at the sudden deaths and they dispersed rapidly away.

"THUNDER!" A cry came from down the street to Slow's left and he replied, "FLASH!"

A couple of Marines appeared and they joined Slow, "Heard your gunfire, where is the rest?"

"Duno..." Slow replied as he checked the gear onboard Asagi. "I landed here with my Asagi but I did not see the rest of my guys!"

"Well, fark it!" One of the Marines said. "Let's just head to the place where the Emperor is, we should be able to find our own people along the way!"

Slow and the other Marine nodded and they quickly headed towards the tallest structure in the city.