0930 January 12th, 2020 CE

0845 (Mid Hour) Start 12th, 196 AE

The eastern plains of the Mach Imperium

“We will continue advancing towards the enemy capital tomorrow. Although we will be closer to the brigade this time. That was a large number of enemies.”

After telling his crew, Nick looks down from his commander’s hatch at the turret of their Abrams. There are some scorch marks from the fire that it had sustained.

“God bless depleted uranium.”

“I wonder why they even put it into the armor,” Brian asks curiously.

“Probably because it works as armor.”

An American soldier who knows how to speak Latin is currently talking with what appears to be the most highly ranked of the Machians. After a bit of talking, the surrendering Machians seem to be thankful for some reason.

Furius walks while carrying Mercator on his back. Mercator had been treated by the medic and is somewhat fine now. Of course, he can’t walk and probably still requires more treatment but that didn’t really matter to Furius. At least Mercator is still alive.

“Now, what are we going to do at this point? You can’t even walk anymore!”

“The Mach Imperium is done for…”

“Well, you can say that again. There weren't even more than 20 enemy tanks. They decimated an entire division backed with hundreds of tanks in less than an hour by themselves. There’s nothing we can do against that. I’m just going to go home. What about you? Where did you live anyways?”

“In the capital.”

“Huh. Oh yeah, you told me about that. Well, that’s not going to be a good place to stay during this time. You don’t have any close relatives right?”

“Yep.”

“Why don’t you come over to where I live and stay for a bit. We have space. You might even be able to attend my sister’s wedding.”

Mercator chuckles a bit.

“Do you even know how we are going to get there? It’s hundreds of miles from here.”

“How about we borrow a car?”

“Again, Furius, no. We are not stealing.”

“Oh come on. Then you got any better ideas? You can’t walk with that bad of an injury and I’m definitely not carrying you all the way there. Actually I need to get you to an actual doctor first.”

“Let’s go find the nearest town then.” “Not on this road. I’m afraid the Americans will find us.”

0940 January 12th, 2020 CE

Tampa, Florida

“General, here’s the report from the first major battle”

General Thompson reviews the report that had been handed to him by his aide.

“Excellent, this is a guaranteed victory. Hell, we may even come out with zero casualties. That’s not something you hear every day.”

1520 January 12th, 2020 CE

1140 (Late Hour) Start 12th, 196 AE

Anicium Castle, Mach Imperium

“The 6th Army Division had been destroyed in a battle in the Eastern Plains.”

Emperor Industros slams his fist on the table.

“What is left of the 6th Division?”

“From what reports we could gather… not much. An optimistic estimate would be around 2,000 infantry and 50 or so tanks.”

“Do we know the enemy numbers?”

“No more than 20 tanks.”

“Twenty!?!”

“Even we didn’t believe it at first but all the survivors we could get a report from had claimed less than 20 tanks.”

Again, the Emperor slams his fist on the table but this time with more force. He looks up and shakes a finger towards his commander that is in charge of the front against the Americans.

“I know what you are trying to do! You just don’t want to make yourselves look bad by losing to the enemy!”

“Um... what, your majesty?”

“SILENCE!”

After a short burst of anger, the Emperor then goes a bit quiet.

“You can’t possibly lose if we send entire armies from the Magusian front to yours.”

The commander in charge of the front against the Magusians stands up in an instant from his chair.

“Your majesty! We can’t possibly do that! The moment that front is gone, the Magusians will flood in and we will be faced with a two-front war!”

The Emperor glares at him.

“Don’t you see! If we don’t do anything, the capital will fall into enemy hands!”

“But what will we do if the Magusians attack?!”

“Then only half of the forces from the Mach-Magus front will be sent to the front against the Americans.”

“Halve the forces?!? That’s ridiculous! If we halve the forces, we won’t have enough men to sufficiently guard the entire front.”

“We will be abandoning the eastern half of the Mach-Magus front. That part is not important anymore with the Americans closing in on our capital.”

The Emperor then turns towards the commander in charge of the front against the Americans. In a stern and slow voice, the Emperor commands him.

“That should be more than half a million soldiers supported by hundreds of tanks. Use these soldiers and tanks as you see fit. Stop the Americans at whatever cost. If you don’t…”

The Emperor stops there while staring at him ominously.

“Understood, your majesty.”

2320 January 12th, 2020 CE

0340 (Early Hour) Start 13th, 196 AE

Mach-Magus Front

In the eastern portion of the Mach-Magus front, Magusian soldiers peek out from their trenches after noticing the silence on the other side. To their surprise, there is no sign of life from the Machian side. Unknown to them, the Machian had secretly retreated yesterday night in the cover of the dark.

0020 January 13th, 2020 CE

0310 (Early Hour) Start 13th, 196 AE

In the throne room of the Emperor of Magus Imperium.

When the news of the retreat of Machian soldiers from the eastern Mach-Magus front last night reached Emperor Arstant, he immediately called for a meeting to ask Caius again to begin the offensive.

“Your majesty, with the withdrawal of Machian soldiers on the eastern front, we shall begin the offensive.”

“Finally, we could have begun much earlier but you just had to wait.”

“Your majesty, it is better to wait to have a perfect plan. Even if it takes years to develop, a perfect plan will guarantee success.”

“What does having a perfect plan have anything to do with this situation?”

“That is a piece of common knowledge in war strategy. It basically means be patient in war. It is never a good idea in a war to take the initiative. Always wait for the enemy to act. Now that the enemy is acting, we can take advantage of it.”

Emperor Arstant sighs.

“Igennus, just begin the offensive.”

0140 January 13th, 2020 CE

0450 (Early Hour) Start 13th, 196 AE

Mach-Magus Front

Across the Eastern Magusian trench line, Magusian officers blow their whistles to signal the beginning of the offensive. Magusian soldiers crest the trench lines whilst accompanied by their magitanks. Magitanks are tanks with special engines. Magitank engines accept both normal fuel and mana given to them by a person. Of course, fuel has an advantage seeing that the mana pool of an average person isn’t that big. On the other hand, if a Great Magus is the person fueling the tank, then the tank can run for a longer time than using fuel. However, Great Maguses would never be in the position of a lowly soldier because they are extremely valuable. Some of the Magusian infantry are carrying guns while some are not. The ones that are carrying guns have an average amount of mana. The ones that aren’t are the ones that have enough mana to use the elements as weapons.

The Machian soldiers and their Magitanks quickly approach the opposing trench without taking any fire. The Magusians slide into the enemy trench to find it completely deserted. The Machians have finally left after 35 years. It felt strange. For 35 years, the Machians and them have been sitting across from each other just waiting for the other to strike. Now just in one night, their enemies left. After a few minutes, an officer among them yells while blowing his whistle.

“Don’t stop! Continue men! It's time to take back the land that was ours in the first place! CHARGE!”

“YAAAAAAAA.”

This time the Magusian soldiers crest the Machain trench and Magusian magitanks drive onward.

The eastern plains of the Mach Imperium

Tearing through the plains, the 1st ABCT makes massive gains. Dillion sighs.

“It’s quite peaceful. No enemies at all.”

They have only come up to abandoned enemy tanks and surrendering infantry.

Connolly, while focused on driving, comments on that.

“That wasn’t many enemy soldiers. I thought you said there were millions of them, Brian?”

“I didn’t factor in the fact that their war strategy is very outdated when compared to ours.”

“Anyways, I have not slept a wink. When are we going to get there?!”

Nick laughs a bit.

“Well Connolly, I'm pretty sure it's still more than a couple of days away.”

0220 January 13th, 2020 CE

0510 (Early Hour) Start 13th, 196 AE

Anicium Castle, Mach Imperium

The commander against the Magusians salutes the Emperor as he comes in.

“Your majesty, we are getting reports of large amounts of Magusian soldiers, magitanks, and wyverns on our side of the eastern border. I believe they have begun their invasion.”

“How is the western portion?”

“They are being bombarded by artillery and dragon attacks but are holding up.”

“Send the Great Western Fleet to that area. We have to make sure that they don’t break through it.”

Emperor Industros looks down on the map that was on the table. He uses a pencil to trace a line on the Mach Imperium.

“This is where we will stop them. Right on the outskirts of the capital.”

“But sir, won’t the Americans get there before us?”

“Ah that might be true, but we still have a considerable force stationed in the capital. They should be fortifying the capital. The forces will hold out in the capital until reinforcements get there. After reinforcements, we can establish a large trench network on this line to ensure that they don’t break through on any sides. The Americans would also probably need time to get to the capital. I’m expecting them to arrive in a week or more so that should also give us more time.”

The 1st ABCT has traveled through some towns, sweeping them for hostiles and asking the civilians if they had seen any Machian military movement. The civilians always seem to comply out of fear. So far, there have been no signs of any Machian military activity ever since the last battle.

0025 January 17th, 2020 CE

0412 (Early Hour) Start 17th, 196 AE

A few miles from the outskirts of Industropolis

There was absolutely no opposition along the way to the Machian capital after the first major battle. It was surprising to the 1st ABCT because they had expected much more Machian counterattacks. It seemed as if the Machians have only focused on static defense. The battle the 1st ABCT had experienced was probably just the Machians accidentally running into them. Far in the distance, the 1st ABCT can see some of the tall skyscrapers of Industropolis.

Brian made a comment after he noticed the skyscrapers

“That building looks like it belongs in a picture in a history textbook of New York City in the early 1900s.”

“It really does.”

Nick coughs a bit.

“Alright boys, be ready. Although no one attacked us along the way, we are still expecting some resistance near the city. We are hoping there’s nothing but this is their capital city. They won’t leave it undefended. So keep your eyes open for any possible ambushes.”

“So when are we assaulting the city?”

“We will have to wait until the rest of the 2nd Marine Division and the 1st Armored Division of the III Corps get here. Shouldn’t be much time.”

Simple trenches ran through the outskirts of their capital. Industro Is are scattered around them to act as support for the infantry. The garrison consists of an infantry regiment of 1,000 men and 30 old tanks retired from the main army.

“Commander! The enemies are nearing! They have stopped not far from here, sir!”