112 Moving Out
"Okay, ring the alarm; WaR iS DeClaReD!" I order, and Terrence immediately nods.
The Commander rushes to a keyboard and types a few lines, causing a loud noise to echo through the base.
"Legionaries, Prometheus has spoken, prepare for battle!" his shout is transmitted via a speaker system to inform everyone.
"Okay, put up the current reserves of Hammer shells on the screen, as well as our current ammo stockpile," I say, and huge numbers immediately appear on-screen.
I can't help but to grin at the sight; this much should last us a long time... I then remember Alan's words, and they act as a cold shower. We should be careful with our ammunition, and not waste it.
"What's the plan?" Terrence sits nearby and asks after putting up a series of live feeds from some enemy bases. "Those are the ones we know about, but we already know that there are a lot more bases around."
"Then let's raze them. Deploy Spell Jammers around the perimeter to stop them from striking back, and destroy their defenses with the Hammer. Then send the men to finish them off!" I order, and Terrence nods.
I know that this plan is risky, but we can't afford to bomb them all into oblivion since our supply of shells isn't infinite. However, the sheer amount of EGBs we have should be enough to last us a long time.
"Alright, I'm transmitting your orders right now!" Terrence says before grabbing his secure phone.
In the meantime, I focus on the screen. Ideally, I would optimize the number of shells we use on ease base with Rewinds, so that we don't even waste one, and I could also give precise instructions to my men so that they aren't surprised.
...Micro-managing thirteen fronts at once will be a nightmare.
But, even if I repeatedly said that I would have not to do that, I can't help but feel responsible for the Legionaries. I would hate to see one of them die because of my laziness.
I take a deep breath and put my finger over the button for quick Rewinds; this is going to be a very long war.
"Beginning the operation!" someone operating a nearby console shouts and take me out of my thoughts. I see the same pattern reproduced on every screen. First, four portals surround the base and drop the Spell Jammers that come to life as soon as they materialize. The sudden surge of mana caused by the portals cause the Empire soldiers to scramble to their positions, and I see a lot of flashes of lights as they teleport around.
I hear the cooling system for our server farm, which is pumping essence of frost at an incredible rate to stop our systems from melting, going into overdrive as the portal station is heavily taxed. Running all the calculations at once must be taxing on the hardware, and I'm glad that I didn't have to program it.
Otherwise, the servers would have exploded a long time ago.
What must be hundreds of portals appear at once, and the entire area rumbles as all the artillery pieces of the Hammer fires nearly continuously.
I realize that I'm smiling as I see the first projectiles appear, and my smile becomes even wider as the first explosions happen.
...it's a perfectly normal reaction, right?
...??? PoV...
"It's going to be our turn, so get ready!" my squad leader shouts before taking a deep breath and looking at a particular spot in front of him.
I check my equipment one last time and also take a deep breath. I still can't believe that I'm going to fight in a war!
At first, I joined the Legion because the Inquisition kept talking about them, how they were the loyal soldiers of Prometheus and all that. At first, I didn't really listen to them. Instead, I watched the footage they kept playing. The scenes of Prometheus and his people wiping out the Invaders will forever be engraved in my memories.
I couldn't believe it at first, how could such power exists? I was also afraid, afraid that they would treat us even worse than the Invaders did.
But I was wrong, they helped us and made our lives better. The sick were healed, food was provided, and better housing was given. The watchful eye of the Inquisition also brought back order, and the transgressors were swiftly executed. I had a hard time believing what I was seeing, our people were on the brink of extinction before, but now we are thriving.
It was at this moment that I started to listen to the Inquisition. I noted that most of the Inquisition members were Ilffs like me, and from what I understood a group of devoted Ilffs even started the Inquisition!
Days passed, and I soon realized that I was eagerly waiting for the daily Inquisition messages. The way they talked about what was happening, how they revealed all the great deeds that Prometheus has done for us, how he defended his people with incredible might... They convinced me.
Anger welled-up each time I heard about the enemies of Prometheus, the Enforcers. They wanted to destroy everything that Prometheus has built. They wanted to turn us into slaves and treat us even worse than the Invaders did! I clenched my fists when I heard that those Enforcers were also trying to destroy Prometheus' people, how they wanted to turn everyone into their slaves.
The Ilffs suffered through such treatment for generations, and I don't wish it upon anyone.
That's what convinced me; the Enforcers might as well be incarnations of pure evil, so I felt compelled to stop them and joined the Legion. My parents didn't even try to stop me. They were very proud of me. My dad even joked that he would have also joined, but he doubted that they would need the services of a one-legged Ilff.
I smile every time I think about this moment, and how my father cried when the Order gave him a prosthetic leg that allowed him to walk again.
I went to a recruitment office, and they accepted me as soon as I said that I wanted to join. First, they had me take an oath to not betray Prometheus, and I gladly accepted. I would never betray Prometheus, so I saw no problem with this extra precaution.
The recruitment officer then created a portal and told me to walk into it. I saw these before on Inquisition footage, so I knew how they worked. I took a deep breath and stepped through the magical construct, and arrived directly into a Legion training camp.
Then, I was given equipment and trained. The Legion training regimen is very unforgiving, but I somehow endured it and-
"We are deploying, let's go!" the leader shouts and takes me out of my thoughts. I nod and run into the portal that appeared in front of us. I catch other squads doing the same thing in the corner of my eye.
But I don't have time to look elsewhere and focus back on the current situation. We emerge in a hilly area; the rain makes the soil muddy as we rush forward. Our target is the large compound in front of us, it's heavily damaged, and the people inside are scrambling to take a defensive position.
I can't help but grin as I see them trying to cast spells, only for them to fail miserably. The Spell Jammer is truly a fearsome weapon, and seeing it in action makes me realize why the Order made them.
But I'm not here to marvel at the Spell Jammer, and I activate my part of the silvery tether that links a few of us together.
This new weapon comes to life, and the metal contained in our boxes comes to life as it wraps around us and lifts us into our designated position. The magical engine of or heavily armored vehicle comes to life, and we move forward. I glance at the screen above me which provides me with data from the surroundings. Other groups of Legionaries did the same thing, and now a line of tracked vehicles are going towards the enemy base at tremendous speeds.
I believe that these vehicles are called tanks.
"Contact!" one of my squad members says, and I immediately switch my focus towards the enemy. A small group of soldiers is throwing glass orbs towards us, they explode on the shield of our tank and turn into fearsome spells. I was warned that there were ways to bypass the Spell Jammer and that the enemy might have access to some of those particular artifacts.
But we are far from being defenseless.
I grab a little joystick and aim the tank's machine gun towards the group. The targeting system helps me adjust my aim, and I fire. The bullets fly and terminate a good chunk of the enemy group, but a few of the larger soldiers wearing heavy armors seem to endure the volley.
"Main gunner, I need your help at four o'clock!" I shout.
"On it!" the gunner replies. A canister containing a couple of MH Shells is teleported into the main cannon when the gunner presses a button, and I hear the turret turning towards the remaining enemies who are chucking the remaining orbs they have.
The vehicle rumbles as the MH Shell canister fires, and a beam of energy vaporizes the gigantic soldiers in an instant. Their position was turned into a crater, and nothing remains.
"New orders, shoot straight up!" a voice comes into my radio, so I aim my gun and fire a hundred rounds into the air without asking questions.
A massive spell explosion happens in the next moment while little blood-soaked feathers fall off the sky and a frenzy of lightning, fire, and ice happens all at the same time in the cloud-covered sky.
I can't help but gulp at the sight, if these attacks reached us then even our shields might not be strong enough.
But let's stop thinking about that, we are blessed by Prometheus so we will be victorious!
I take a glance at the observation screen, and it seems that our tank charge is going well, our brother in arms are making good progress and-
All the vehicles grind to a halt in an instant; the sudden deceleration is enough to trigger my shield.
"What's happening?" I ask. I look at my screen and see that the twenty other tanks also stopped.
"No idea, but-" A loud explosion silences the driver and sends shockwaves through the vehicle. I take a glance at my two squad mates and they aren't injured so we are safe for now.
"Maybe it's related to that." The cynical driver retorts and I take a glance at my screen.
My jaw drops when a massive whirlpool of various spells form a wall of magic between the base and our vehicles. I try to look through the smoke caused by the spells, but I can't see anything.
"What's happening?" I ask the driver.
"I can't see anything, but command says that the enemy is chucking old crates filled with those orbs to stop us from advancing!" the driver replies.
I nod, it does make sense since those orbs are likely the only way of fighting back they have at their disposal.
"So what should we do?" I ask. Not moving is never a good idea on a battlefield.
"New orders!" our radios come to life. "Take a step back and fire a volley through the spells!"
We nod and go to our post. I notice that all the tanks go in reverse for a few moments before unleashing their terrifying payload. The twenty beams of mana pierce through the wall of wild magic and dispel it in the process. A few beams went through the wall and smashed into the makeshift barricades erected by the enemy soldiers.
"Forward!" the radio shouts again, and the engine rumbles as the massive machine moves.
The panicked defenders are doing everything they can to stop the tank charge. The largest combatants are picking up large pieces of stone or concrete and chuck them at our tanks. The ineffective attacks are met by a well-placed EGB that makes them explode from the inside.
Two bull-headed creatures charge our tank and try to stop it. It works for a moment, but the driver increases the speed of the vehicle and runs them over. The cracking of bones echoes in the vehicle as we flatten the Minotaurs, but it's soon covered by a burst of machine-gun fire coming from another tank.
We are now inside the enemy base. The initial Hammer strike destroyed a good part of the square building, and we went through the opening to reach what was once an inner courtyard. We fire our main cannon towards the building to clear any potential ambush, and it doesn't take long before even more of the base collapses.
"Good job, now we need to clear out the few remaining stragglers!" the radio gives us our new orders. We all grab our rifles and turn the tank back into its original form. The metal goes back into our respective boxes, and we disconnect the tether that was linking us.
"Alright, we need to be careful, enemies could be hiding in every corner!" the squad leader warns before leading us into a half-collapsed building. The enemy defense system has been obliterated, so command feeds us information on the whereabouts of the few survivors.
I tighten my grip on my weapon as I head into the dark corridor, my heart is racing as we are slowly clearing each room.
I sincerely hope that everything will be alright.
