Chapter 11: Showdown at Naggiar

Flashback:

The hill was no longer a safe place to set up camp since the Imperials already knew about it. We quickly packed up and headed to the Army base camp in Naggiar. It was going to be the largest battle in the war... and also the bloodiest…

It took only a few hours before the entire bulk of the Regular Army and the Militia to arrive in Naggiar. It looked like it was the Empire's endgame.

We tried to tell them about the Imperial Valkyria we saw a few hours ago but we couldn't get a hold of Capt. Varrot. It was frustrating that the only person, who would listen to us, couldn't hear our report on our previous mission... My guts were telling me that this 'Final Battle' is going to be one hell of a fight...

Later that night, I visited Emilia once again. I could see it in her face, she was troubled.

"So…" I said "You know who that masked guy was?"

"I'm not sure…" She replied in a troubled tone "… All I know is that his name is Shadow and he is Lt. Tulius' best soldier…"

Best Solider huh… Well judging by the fact that he was a master at CQC, not to mention stealth, he would prove to be a formidable enemy… But I couldn't think about the masked man any further because I kept seeing how troubled Emilia was.

I wondered if it had something to do with Croix so I asked what's wrong. Emilia stayed quiet. She didn't answer my question; all she gave me was silence.

"Something wrong?" I asked "Come on, you can tell me, Emilia"

"Aster…" she said "… I'm starting to question whether the Empire's cause is truly just…"

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since Fouzen, I now see how much lives the Empire has damaged… And I am guilty for contributing for many of them…"

I couldn't utter a word… I wanted to comfort Emilia but I couldn't think of a way to comfort her in that situation… I guess deep down, I still had this really strong hatred against the Empire… But after a short while, I was able to muster the courage to talk to her once more and say:

"I wish I could say something nice like 'No it's not your fault..."

I took a deep breath before I continued to say:

"Yes… you are guilty of contributing to the pain and misery of the people of Gallia… That includes me and my squad…"

Emilia then lowered her head even more. I guess she thought I was going to berate her…

"…But now that you know, what are you going to do?"

"Huh?" she said as she looked at me with a confused face

"We can't deny that you've done a lot of atrocities against the people of Gallia… But all that doesn't matter now… Since you already realized what you've done, what will you do from now on? Will you find a way to redeem yourself? Will you just sulk there and feel sorry for yourself while this war rages on without you? Or will you return to the Empire?"

Emilia sat there quiet. I guess she was thinking about what I said. Before she could utter a word, Rick walks into the room.

"What is it?" I asked

"Aster, we're being gathered at the briefing tent…"

"Ok… You go on ahead. I'll catch up"

"Alright…" He replied as he left

"Emilia…" I said as I turned towards her "I'll be going now… Don't take all the blame… I know you're a kind person under all that pride…"

I gave her a sincere smile. As I walked away, Emilia said:

"Aster… Can you come closer to me?"

"Huh?" I wondered

"I want to tell you a secret…" she said "But being tied to this chair isn't really helping…"

"O-ok…"

As I leaned over to her, she quickly moved her face and kissed me in the cheek. I was caught off guard. It was so sudden that I simply stared at Emilia, who was blushing too.

We stared at each other for a few minutes before Emilia snapped me back to reality by saying:

"D-D-Don't y-you have a meeting to go to?"

Oh that's right I was being called to a meeting… I had completely forgotten about it… I mean how would I even remember it after what Emilia did… Anyhow, I said goodbye to her and went on my way to the meeting…

Back to the present:

"Emilia kissed you?"

"On the cheek kid… Don't go assuming otherwise…"

"So she IS your wife?"

"Hold it. No spoilers… I hate spoilers… So you're gonna have to wait for me to reach that part of the story to confirm if it's legit or not…"

"Aw…ok"

"Ok then…to continue… When I got to the meeting that was when I found out that we were going to be one of the first squads to fight the Imperials tomorrow morning. I tried to inform them of the Imperial Valkyria but those good-for-nothing generals in the army brushed me off!"

"Your squad was part of the intial fighting force against the Empire? But I thought Squad 1's Commander, Faldio Lanzaat, was the only survivor of that battalion?"

"No he wasn't… we survived too and if it weren't for us, he'd be among the dead, hell, nothing would have been left of him…"

Flashback:

The fighting began at about 10am. Our squad was positioned in the right flank. Compared to the other mission I've been through, it was a really hard battle since I was fighting in an open field. Despite that minor obstacle, our squad managed to really put up a good fight, so did the other squads. We were slowly but surely pushing the Imperials back. Although we were winning, I knew the Imperials had a "secret weapon" waiting...

After a while, a lone Imperial woman walked in the middle of the battlefield. I quickly grabbed my binoculars and it was her, Selveria Bles.

"What's she doing?" Cooper wondered

"Walking into the middle of a battlefield?" Paul said "Isn't that kind of insane?"

Just then, a blue aura surrounded the woman and her lance extended and I saw a few sparks of electricity on it as she points it towards the unsuspecting Gallians.

With that, she reveals her true 'form'. She fires a beam of light from her lance. It was so bright that I had to cover my eyes. When I opened them, the Gallian Army was decimated. Wait… Decimate is kind of sugarcoating it… It was more like nothing was left… And with that, we saw how the army and militia desperately tried to put her down. But it was all in vain. She even blocked a tank shell with her small shield.

"Unbelievable" Cooper said "Is this lady for real!?"

"So the Valkyria legends are real..." Croix said

The entire squad was shocked… We could hardly believe what we were seeing… This one woman is slaughtering our men and is hardly flinching even after blocking a tank shell… Who knew that the Valkyria were this powerful...

After a while, Croix snapped us all out of our shock and said "She may have powers… But she's still human! She can still bleed!"

"What are you planning?" Paul asked

"Paul, when she turns her back… Put a bullet in her head…" Croix replied

"Are you sure?" Paul said "That's pretty risky…"

"Got any better ideas?" Croix said "Our countrymen are being slaughtered out there! We have to put her down!"

Croix was right. If we don't act soon, she'll slaughter the entire army. We waited patiently under the cover of the trenches and waited for the opportunity to strike. It was hard waiting for an opening... Because we had to watch as that Valkyria annihilates our forces because we knew that if we screw that up, we'd be as good as dead.

We then saw a squad of militiamen surround her.

"Isn't that Squad 1?" Cooper said as he looked through his binoculars "Yes, it is Squad 1!"

"Yeah…" I replied "The one Faldio Lanzaat leads…"

Squad 1 distracted her from the rest of the army and she was starting to turn her back on us. Our window was closing in fast… She then fired her beam again, annihilating the militiamen behind her and as she turned towards the other group, she briefly turned her back on us; Paul acted quickly and made his shot. Unfortunately, he only hit her shoulders. This caused her to raise her lance a little bit higher, thus the beam went on a different direction. That was what saved Faldio Lanzaat's life. The beam narrowly missed him as he was pushed over the trench by his subordinates but I couldn't say the same for his squad. Anyway, after Paul made his shot, I saw that her wound was suddenly surrounded by a blue flame and no later than 5 seconds, it was good as new...

"This is not good" I said "Her wound just healed and now she's looking right at us…"

"Shoot her again!" Croix said

"What!?" Paul said "Are you crazy? If I do that, it'll compromise our location!"

"If we shoot her in the head now while she's still somewhat distracted, we can end this!" he replied

"No way!" Paul said "It's too risky!"

"Fine!" Croix replied as he raised his rifle "Then I'll do it!"

"NO!" Paul said as he tried to stop Croix but failed

The Imperial blocked Croix's shot with her shield. And with that final shot, she knew where we were… She then began charging her attack. I quickly turned to our tank and shouted "Elena! Get outta there!" Acting quickly, Elena abandoned her tank.

It's funny how the difference in a few seconds would mean life and death… Elena narrowly cheated death as she was nearly caught in the beam's path.

"Squad 9!" Paul said "We need to retreat!"

Oh man… We're going to run for our lives against a woman who fires powerful long-range beams at us… Not to mention that she annihilated an entire battalion… Mustering every bit of strength and courage we had, we all began to make a mad dash to safety… She then fires another beam which we narrowly outran…

And another twist of bad luck, Sonia tripped and fell.

"Sonia!" I said

Croix quickly turned around and came to her aid. But then I saw the Imperial woman charging up another beam. I knew if she fired, Croix and Sonia wouldn't be able to outrun the beam…

"Everyone!" I said "Focus fire on the Imperial woman! We need to distract her!"

And we did. We fired everything we've got at her. She quickly stopped charging her beam and blocked out bullets. But she began to charge her lance again. By that time, Sonia had recovered and we resumed our mad dash. She fired another beam and it was literally right behind me. You could just imagine all that adrenaline pumping into me as that beam was dangerously getting closer… After reaching a certain distance, she stopped chasing us and seemed to let us go. We took that opportunity to hide inside a trench and take a break. We were all exhausted. All that running and adrenaline really drained me of my energy… Suddenly, Paul walked towards Croix and punched him.

"You compromised the safety of the squad again!" he shouted

Croix remained silent. Giving a sour look to Paul

"Damn it Croix!" He said "When will you stop this bullshit!? Will it take another casualty to shake you back in fucking reality!?"

"We could have killed her…" Croix muttered

Hearing him say that, I kind of lost it myself.

"Killed her? Killed her!?" I shouted "Is that all you think about now!? How many Imperials you kill!? You don't care anymore about us!? What happened to 'getting everyone out of every mission alive'!? If you continue to spout this kind of bullshit, then I'm leaving this squad too! Your petty vendetta is NOT worth dying for!"

"They're right Croix…" Cooper said "I'm already disappointed in you… Flunky and Morris were my best friends too but all because they died, doesn't mean I can disregard me and my squad's safety…"

"I'm also starting to feel uncomfortable here…" Elena added "... I was nearly turned into dust along with my tank… I'm pretty lucky to be alive, you know…"

The atmosphere was heavy and our morale and camaraderie was severely low… I felt that at any moment, the squad could break up…

We then returned to the main camp. Everyone was too busy to notice us. They were all preoccupied towards one person and that was Faldio Lanzaat. They thought he was the only survivor but in truth, we survived too but they were too busy focusing on the grim situation at hand to notice…

About an hour later, I was resting inside Squad 9's tent when I overheard a conversation.

"So… you came to berate me too?"

That voice… It was Croix

"No…" and basing on the tone, it sounded like Sonia

"I came here to talk to you…"

"Well that's a first… I'm not in a mood for talking really…"

"Hear me out…" she said

"Ok…ok… I'll listen…" Croix replied

"Croix… Seeing you like that… I now realize how reckless I was…"

"Huh?" Croix wondered

"When I disobeyed orders, back in Yuell. I put you and Aster in danger… In fact, if we weren't fast enough, I think Aster would have died… In Fouzen, when I allowed my anger to take control, if you didn't stop me, I would have been caught in the explosion that destroyed the locomotive. I could have died… Worse is that I put you and Aster in danger again… After all that, I realized just how much my actions affect my allies… You're doing exactly what I did and basing on your story, you're going back to the time when you told me you shot Aster… I still hate the Empire but now, I am trying my best to put your safety above my thirst for revenge… That way, I won't put any of you in danger… Croix… I don't want you to make that mistake and realize it when another one of us dies… Please Croix…"

I didn't have to see it… But I had a feeling that Sonia hugged Croix… After that, I could hear Croix cry… I guess he was the one who was most affected by their deaths… Besides that, I was glad that Sonia managed to talk some sense into him…

Back in the present:

"Did you participate in the 2nd half of the battle?"

"No we didn't… Capt. Varrot herself told us to stay put once Paul explained the situation to her… I guess she agreed that Croix wasn't fit to command the squad and he'll most likely get us killed…"

"Oh…"

"Anyway, what happened next is written in your little textbooks. The 2nd battalion was on the brink of losing until someone, I think her name was Alicia Melchiott, was revealed to be a Valkyria too. She saved the lives of all those men… And that was how it all went down during the Battle of Naggiar Plains…"

"It was supposed to be the Empire's last attempt to defeat the Gallian Army but it ultimately failed when the Gallians had a Valkyrur as well… Right?"

"Yep… it was… There were a lot of surprises that day…"