Washington D.C.

President Hayes was having a meeting to discuss the next steps of the war against the elves.

“How should we proceed with the invasion of the Elven homeland?”

Secretary of Defense Cralson was there to brief him on the overall situation and plan.

“We will begin with a 48-hour air and missile campaign to eliminate as much of the enemy as we can. We will target military bases, government buildings, and known positions. Then there will be multiple beach landings with air support. Once the beachheads are established, they will meet with each other and we will push inland. As of right now, Green Berets have already moved in. They should be gathering information and transferring it back to us quite soon.”

“Ugh. We don’t know how hard they are willing to fight. What secret weapons they have up their sleeves. And most of all, whether or not they have developed the bomb.”

It was clear that the elves had a secret weapon program but it was to an unknown extent. The US government feared that the elves might have already created an atom bomb. Although it was no threat to the US homeland, it was a major cause for concern for the invasion force. If the elves had buried it in the ground and set it to explode once US forces were on top of it, there was no telling the amount of damage it could inflict.

Guantánamo Bay, New Frontier

Two CIA agents were having a quick discussion in their office.

“So how are our elven guests doing?”

“Pretty terrible.”

“That’s good to hear. Any of them willing to spill anything yet?”

“There are about as nationalistic as the Japanese were during World War 2. Military intelligence was not kidding when they complained about their lack of cooperation.”

“I’m taking that as a no then.”

“We are tempting them with food and better conditions but man their nationalism must have been put into them from the moment they were born. They have already been starved, beat, left in the extreme cold and heat, forced to stay awake, and put into extremely uncomfortable positions. They aren’t budging. We may need to switch to harsher methods soon.”

“Give it one or two more days. I rather not have to view the harsher methods.”

“Me neither but we have to do what we have to do... wait, since this is considered US territory, are we still allowed to do our ya know... 'methods'"

"Well, if you read the 50-page document detailing the annexation of the New Frontier, there's a small clause somewhere in the middle that makes this area of the New Frontier, not a US territory in the name of preserving the natural wildlife of this world or some excuse."

"Well doesn't that mean having this structure is disturbing the wildlife."

"The clause says that it doesn't allow for any new buildings to be built."

"Then how are we going to upgrade our facilities?"

The agent chuckled.

"Emphasis on the new."

Elven landing zones in the Magus Imperium

The temporary ports constructed at the start of the elven invasion of the Empire were extremely busy. Magipanzers were being driven back onto the landing craft and transport ships. Platoons of elves hurried across the coast. Crates were quickly being loaded on. Everyone was in a hurry. They knew that they couldn’t evacuate everyone but they were going to try. The Americans were extremely close.

They had been constantly harassed by American aircraft and even at sea, the harassment didn’t stop.

From her hatch, Ara looked out at the sea towards her homeland. Her blitzpanzer division, trained and focused on the specific use of speed, had easily outpaced the rest of the Second Wave army. Her division was assigned to a ship that would depart within two hours. It was easy because she didn’t have that many magipanzers. From the casualties she had suffered during the battles and retreats, it wasn’t much of a division anymore and was more comparable to a battalion. A total of 63 magipanzers remained out of the original 321. She was still surprised that she herself survived the entire ordeal. She had started to consider retiring soon.

Frontline

“Keep firing! We must let them through the perimeter!”

The Second Wave Army, bolstered by parts of the Third Wave Army, fought a retreating battle. They had to hold on for as long as possible for the evacuations to finish. The last of their dragon artillery battalions fired their large bursts before being blown up by bombs that came from unknown places. The Americans have been bombarding the retreating elven forces that were even further behind the defending elven units. However, it was clear that the Americans were focused on trying to break through the defensive position.

Coast of Elven Nation

“My Leader! Good to see you here.”

Although his words were positive, the way that they were spoken were definitely not. It was clear why. Zeno was out in the sun. Firing the Hexenbesens when it was raining didn’t seem like a good idea. Flying experimental aircraft in the rain wasn’t a good idea either but Zeno had been extremely insistent on it and gave the excuse that it was a good test of its all-weather capabilities so it was allowed. However, his wish of firing the Hexenbesens when it was raining was denied. It wasn’t a test so failure because the weather would have been unacceptable and the firing had to happen soon so they couldn’t wait for rain.

“Are you sure they will hit?”

“We are firing multiple Hexenbesens. All targeted at the Americans on the coasts that they have reached. Although not a hundred percent accurate, some are bound to hit and do damage.”

Flames appeared below the first Hexenbesen as it started to rocket towards the sky.

Coast of the Magus Imperium

“We are detecting multiple incoming missiles. All targeted at our ground forces in the area.”