[Rewritten To Strike Back]

Around the same time as the Havenklein counteroffensive The Flash Navy places one of its Carrier Strike Groups on the blue waters after having been ordered to make their move at 0000, midnight to conduct an operation, the FMV Luftskibinfiltrator along with its 4 destroyers and 6 frigates are part of it.

The fleet is located at the North-East of the occupied island, just over the horizon. And according to the FIIA, none of their movement movement has been detected by the enemy so far despite the so-called 'detectors'.

Being in contact with Esterria means they also made contact with some mages, who told them in multiple cases that none of their people and other things contained even a single slight hint of magic signature as if they weren't alive at all. Owing to the fact that as far as they know, the detector cannot pick up something with 0 magic, this meant that they have total element of surprise.

The Kingdoms Union won't know what would hit them until it was already unfolding.

Sebastian and Jonas are now scrambling as the operation is now greenlighted with their equipment on and helmet held by their hand. One might remember them for scaring the crap out of the Esterrians back then. The pilots ran across the hallway to the carrier hangar, where their Hornet is waiting for them there.

Eventually, they made it, while other aircrafts are already taking the lift to the deck one by one. Their best friend, the F/A-18D is sitting there, with wings folded and canopy open. Without any hesitation but with also some slight trippings, the twos climb onto the aircraft, and jumps into the cockpit of the white fighter jet.

"Been awhile since we did something real like this right Sebastian?"

"That was a recon mission, this is a combat one for fuck sakes!"

"Ah well, we still get to soar the skies doing some real shit"

"That... I can agree"

As they put on their helmets, a tow tractor then came into view, as it reverse to the front of the aircraft, it's their turn to get onto the elevator.

"Looks like we're next..."

The towing tractor gets into position with the man in blue on the left side of the vehicle, before they started to slowly move as they navigate through the busy hangar.

"OI! CLOSE THE CANOPY WILL YA?" shouted the crew on the tractor, prompting the pilot to do what he asked for.

The aircraft gradually moves to the elevator of the carrier, and when they get there, the tractor reverse to get the fighter into place before detaching from the front landing gear of the aircraft. Soon enough, the elevator lifts the jet up to the deck, and as they're getting there with the deck now in view, they can see the other fighter jets launch off the carrier at high speed.

Upon their arrival, the rails were sent down to make way for the aircraft, as another tow tractor is already there to move them towards one of the catapult. It has been awhile since something like this was first done, yet it still feels strange somehow.

Normally, Navy aviators on carrier often has to get to the catapult on their own. This practice only trickled in some days after they realized they were in a completely different world and started saving on oil reserves.

Speaking of oil, the North Western area of Agevær has oil rigs set up to drill up some black gold, though not as much as some region of desert that characteristically could not have peace for even 30 seconds. They still have a role nonetheless, causing a lot of concerns with the KUG's invasion of Gevaka.

Because of how loud the flightdeck is to the crew on foot and the sound being completely muffled for the pilots, Jonas and Sebastian will have to rely on hand communication for things to go smoothly.

And as they're already next on who gets to be launched from the carrier, the tow tractor detaches once they're near with the flight deck crew waiting for them on the catapult. The APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) and both of the aircraft's engine would be brought to life in the meantime.

The one in yellow uniform in front of him waves both of his hands side to side, meaning they need to move forward. From that point on where the jet creeps closer, the crew sometimes point to the aircrafts left and right from time to time as corrections, until he crosses his hand, prompting the pilot to stop. Then the aircraft director dropped his right arm to perpendicular position of his body, meaning the launch bar is to be extended.

The aircraft director would move to the pilot and his WSO's right, the JBD (Jet Blast Deflector) are raised with 2 of the crews going for the front landing gear.

After a short while, the crews at the front landing gear left, and the director once again signals the pilot to move forward for a while until he crosses his arm, again stopping the aircraft.

"Okay final check to the aircraft, check the ailerons and slat..." said Sebastian.

The ailerons and slats then went up and down, going the opposite direction of each other from both sides, it seems to work perfectly.

"Horizontal stabilizers and rudder..."

The horizontal stabilizers, along with both of the rudders are working as intended.

"Flaps down..."

The pilot extends the flap downward, now in position to get the aircraft lifted up into the skies.

"Give me a moment, let me check our weapons..."

The pilot, Jonas waited as his Weapon System Officer checked each of the weapons mounted on the hardpoints of the aircraft, which includes bombs and missiles as well as internal one such as the guns.

"Guns spooling..." reported Jonas "Sidewinder's giving off a tone..."

"Bombs seems to be good as well, all systems up and running"

Jonas throttle the engines to maximum power, turning on the afterburner, the engines are good to go.

"Alright, here we go then... get ready Sebastian"

Jonas and Sebastian gave the flight deck crew a respective salute before bracing themselves for the launch. After awhile saluting the crews, the aircraft suddenly went down, doing a little bit of bounce before they are pushed forward to high speed in a short matter of time. Both were then launched forward (but not too far as to hit the flight instrument), they are now in the skies. They would make their ascent as they begins to make their way to where they are needed.

...

Over the past 3 months, the Kingdoms Union Gestrae forces in the island of Gevaka had been building up in numbers and fortifications. Currently troops number in an estimated 290k, with the occupiers being from 7 countries, most are La Ferdinan, giving them the nickname of the 7 Nations Army, though officially they're called the Kingdoms Union Gestrae Northern Expedition or KUGNE for short.

At one of the harbors to the North-East of the island, 2 soldiers of the Hendrolisan Land Forces stood up late to act as sentry for the ones stationed in the harbor, walking around the harbor, taking the opportunity to look around and enjoy the peace before they sat down on the dock together.

"What you think Miguel?"

"These ships are big man, they have a lot of guns on there"

"Indeed they are, I think this barbarian country won't stand a chance against us if they were to attack"

"You can bet that Hector, those barbarians will be crushed under our might!"

"We might even bring glory to our country of Hendrolis. Not only that, the survivors, if there's any at all, will tell the tales of how we crushed their weak Flashian Army!"

The 2 Hendrolisan soldiers laughed, then they took a shot of their respective beer bottle they brought with them. As they laughed and drank, a faint roar of thunder can be heard in the skies above.

"You hear that?" said Miguel

"Yeah, must be a thunderstorm coming"

"Huh, I guess so..."

But that roar became louder and louder at a rate atypical of an approaching thunderstorm, which made the 2 subsequently more concerned. Stress would get the better of them, and they would look for the clouds that may have caused it.

"I see something up there..." Hector barely picks it up.

"What? Where?"

"There" he pointed towards the East.

As it turned out, he was referring to a mysterious silhouette flying through the skies. The object was on its flight trajectory towards the harbor, and it seemed to be the source of such roars. Then it dropped multiple objects that are also a mystery for our 2 Hendrolisan soldier... that is until they exploded once they hit the ships.

"OH, BY THE-"

The pair immediately ducked for cover as pieces of wood are sent flying all over the place.

They keep themselves low, covering their head facing down the ground, another explosion happens in the harbor, this time closer to where they are right now and then multiple far-away ones in-land. The 2 Hendrolisan soldiers slowly looks up, trembling in fear, frightened of what was unleashed on them.

The first sight they would see subsequently is the blazing yellow of the ensuing fire, followed by a large smoke rising on the ships docked near where the soldiers' locations.

The object went past, the sound briefly at its peak before fading away into obscurity. Just as when they thought it was over however, there were more of them coming towards them as far as they can tell from the sound above.

"By the gods... what are they...?" murmured Miguel.

"I don't even know anymore..." replied Hector "...We must get back to the others and arm up!"

His partner would nod before both would make a run for it.

...

Who took the bomp?

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

The skies of Gevaka is now filled with aircrafts of the Luftforsvar and Marine, conducting strike mission on infrastructure such as wyvern airfields, military command post and as you seen eariler, harbors.

"Tally 1 hostile"

Tally in this sense means having visual sight on other aircraft, in this case a wyvern that the KUGNE had scrambled to deal with the aerial threat.

"FOX-2!"

And there goes an IR-guided missile, the AIM-9 Sidewinder guides itself to the target given by the missile guidance system, as it locks on the heat signature of the wyvern. Its rider may have seen it, as there's no other explanation for the wyvern doing evasive maneuvers, being somewhat erratic and all that. But in the end, it was of no use, taken down by a resounding explosion, and is now falling out of the skies.

"Splash 1 Lizard"

"Nice!"

The two-seater Super Hornet then turned to where the wyvern came from, and the airbase was soon in sight. From the targeting pod, Sebastian could see another wyvern, preparing to take off from the airbase.

"Switching to guns, let me at them!"

The Super Hornet dived down on the unsuspecting wyvern. And even if anyone down there noticed them, it was probably too late to anything at this point.

"Guns!"

The F/A-18F let loose 20mm bullets on the wyvern, killing it, its rider and maybe some of ground crew that were unfortunate enough to be in the crossfire. Jonas was going to go for another run on the airbase, but then, his WSO had another idea.

"Let them be Jonas, cruise missile is coming this way and going finish them off anyway. Plus, we got bigger fish to fry"

"Acknowledged"

...

"By the gods..."

The personnel on the airfield, belonging to the La Ferdinan Imperial Wyvern Corps or LFIWC if you want to make it short, just witnessed a wyvern being shot out of the skies and the other killed before it even took off. Along with this, some of them were killed in the process, leaving a hellish high-pitched sound as well as a loud roar behind.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

One of them narrowly escaped the line of fire of the white dragon, is knocked down on the ground. He breathes heavily as he looked in horror at the dead bodies of the military personnel and the wyvern, when he hears someone calling for him. It was the mage, whose voice is muffled to his still ringing ears.

"JEAN! GET OVER HERE! INCOMING PROJECTILE!"

He knew who this mage is. This particular one specializes in anything detection-related, who could enhance his vision and provide early warning for his comrades. So naturally Jean believes him, trying to get up with all he had and start running, limping with a leg that seen better days.

He tries to get there as fast as possible, the sound of a roar approaches him from behind, terrifying him before being once again knocked down by a big explosion. He once again survives the ordeal, and then he looked up on the aftermath.

Many more personnel were lying on the ground around the airfield as fires erupt, they are either dead or injured. He groans as the excruciating pain act up around his left leg, but there's no time lying there idly. He crawls and crawls, to the safety of the barracks or the hangar. It will take a while, but he will still try to get there as quickly as he can.

The runway is now damaged to the point of no longer being usuable with the crater formed in aftermath. The repair team consisting of support mages would be able to fix it, but at this point, no one could do so fast enough with unknown forces attacking them with such surprise and devastation to the KUGNE forces.

...

"What in the Gods' names is this?"

Enzo looked out the balcony of the fortress he is staying in only to see mysterious silhouettes filling the skies, fires, explosions nearby and smoke rising in distances.

"Why isn't our wyverns doing anything?!" he yelled at one of his subordinates.

"Sir! Our wyverns kept being shot down as soon as they took off, furthermore many of our wyvern airfields has been destroyed by large explosions!"

The noble facepalmed, disappointed at how things become, as the faint explosions continued.

"What a load of imbeciles... Get our soldiers to prepare, we will fight this unknown forces, whoever they are!"

"Yes sir!" acknowledged the soldier before he ran off to carry out his order.

...

In the dungeon of the fortress where 'pleasure slaves' are held, the silver demi-human tries in her best to cover her cat ears with her cuffed hands. The explosions outside too loud for her to handle, especially when her hearing is enhanced thanks to that pair.

Why do I specifically mention cat ears? Well, it's because this demihuman is among her kind that has an extra pair of ears on them which are from humans stemming from the fact that their blood has historically been mixed as this world had recovered from the terror of a long lost empire.

"So loud..."

This silver-haired feline wasn't that afraid of loud noises at first, but when she got forcibly taken away and subsequently ending up in the hands of a certain La Ferdinan noble alongside the environment she lived in and what she had experienced for the past 4 years, she became fearful of any loud noises.

Sudden on and off deafening noises were ingrained into her mind as danger over time. As such, the explosion triggered her fearfulness, and there's nothing she could do about it except covering her ears, cowering as the whatever is happening outside continues.

"Please... make it stop..." she cried out.

...

30 kilometers from the North-Eastern coast of the island A La Ferdinan Imperial Army fortress located at the North-Eastern part of the island just received an order, in response to the attacks of the unknown forces, the soldiers stationed there are to be deployed to the fields, to prepare for possible ground invasion of this unidentified army.

"Hurry up to the field!" he shouted while rushing down to the exit, following him are soldiers with muskets while he has a sword and a flintlock. The faint explosions are heard as they went down the stairs, at times like this, the soldiers try to keep calm before the battle.

"Come on!"

The officer is now on the hallway of the first floor, running to where the door to the outside is. He turns right at the stairway, then turned left, he and his soldiers ran for a while before turning right to an intersection, and now the door is in sight. The officer pants as he run, he's getting a bit tired from all those running while carrying equipments with him and begins to slow down a little.

As he reaches the door, he opens it to get to the fields only to get smacked in the face almost instantly after the door swung open, knocking him to the ground and then 3 continuous gunshots followed by another 4 can be heard. He lifts his head up to see what's happening, and before he knows it, he was looking down a barrel of a black stave pointed directly at him.

"Hands up!" yelled the one wielding the gun in black as the sounds of the gunfire ensues. The person in question wore a dark green, black and brown uniform and helmet, with a green vest and pouches, it's clear that he's a soldier, the opposing force they've been alerted about.

"Who are you?"

"I said hands up damn it!"

"Don't you know who you talking to-"

"Do I give a shit? Let me see those hands!"

The officer was terrified to say the least, the soldier did not care who he is, not to mention they're here, far behind the coastal lines. Holding an unfamiliar design, yet still recognizable as a firearm, this one doesn't seem to be the kind that hesitates to shoot if he tries to fight back. And so, he had no choice but to surrender to this soldier of unknown origin.

"On your knees right now!"

The officer gets up, knees on the floor, feeling shameful in the meantime. He takes the time to look around only to see piles of dead bodies of his soldiers lying there, and to his shock, it seemed like there were only 4 of them including the soldier who forced him to surrender.

He then feel his hand getting manipulated to the back of his body, before his wrists tightened together, the officer is now restrained.

"Now stay put, if you try to run out, our guys outside will put you down for good" the green man warned.

This implied there were more outside the fortress. He nodded multiple times out of fear, complying to what he demanded him to do. Now he's just sitting there, by the doorway, looking down as to reflect what happened.

"Forgive me my empress..."

...

"Surprise, motherfucker!"

Wyvern Airbase, South-West of Gevaka In another place, a Flash Faldskærmtrop suddenly jumped into the front door of a building of the airbase built by KUGNE using slave labor and used by KUGNE and immediately opened up on the occupants in front of him with his machine gun leaving them no chance to resist before it was too late.

Then, his comrades would storm in and finish off anyone he missed somewhere in the corner with decisive semi-automatic shots of their sub-carbines. They'd then scan the rest of the place, later calling a "Clear!" before moving onto the second room.

They would bunch up to the next door, splitting into two for both sides. A rifleman would swing the door open, the MG would again be the first to go in...

BANG

...And the first one to get shot, as it turned someone there had picked up a flintlock and scored a hit on him. It would've been enough to down him, but much to the horror of the one who took the shot, the ball merely lightly kicked on his right chest.

"Oh you..."

It never stopped the opposing soldier from raising his machine gun at the guy, as a matter of fact, he was completely fine. The next thing he knew is that this green man would give him a treatment akin to that of being the victim of a certain infamous typewriter. Unable to recover from the shock caused by such a thing, the other occupants would be put out of misery by his hail of fire combined with his squadmates coming in to help.

After going guns blazing on these KUGNE staffs, they would scan their surroundings before calling another "Clear!" before one of their own turn to their gunner.

"Fuck's sakes, Frode" as he would check on him "You alright?"

"I'm fine" he replied "Don't worry, the plate caught it..."

"Sure it did... but still be careful next time, ja?"

"Ja, ja..."

Once again, they would go back to bunch up on the next door of the building. When that door opens up to the Faldskærmtropper... it's safe to say that the immediate next scene would be repeated flashes of yellow seen outside, walls having more holes in them, and also screams in between...

...

Admiral Alexandre is out in the blues of Gevaka at the South-Eastern part of the island on his flagship. He and his crew were to deploy as quickly as possible in response to attacks happening in all corners of the island. Nobody here really knows what's going on, nor do they who they are dealing with. The only thing that is for sure, is that they're destroying their forces in such surprise, devastation and swiftness.

"Who are they?" mumbled the admiral, who watched in horror as many of the La Ferdinan and other KUG navies' ships are set on fire on the dock "Are they the emissaries of some Gods?"

In panic, they scramble to prepare for battle. Cannons are already set up with their operators in place, all they have to do is to wait for the enemy warships to arise from the sea where from that point, they would get close and take the shot.

They waited as the bombings of the KUGNE forces in Gevaka continued, nervous as they do not know what to come. They waited and waited, until they hear a distant chopping of the air, coming from their South to the ship's position amidst the roars of the non-flapping wings dragons.

The La Ferdinan admiral then looked at the direction of where the sound came from, taking out his spyglass to get a closer look and scanned the surrounding. He looked for a while, until he sees a flying white object with rotating blade coming directly at them.

The La Ferdinan flagship is unstoppable against any warship that dares to attack it, or at least they believed so, but they're ill-suited against any agile airborne threat. The admiral panics as this thing is just going for them. He loudly out an order:

"Take that thing down mage!" without using any of the standardized lingos as his mind is all over the place.

The offensive mages casted fireballs at the flying object, which was flying low and closing distance fast. Many was sure that this will take out the object... until they saw the white flying thing veering to the right of his warship at such an unimaginable speed.

The crews are shocked, wyverns may be maneuverable, but not as maneuverable as whatever this is. The object then turn back to his ship, returning to low altitude. The La Ferdinan sailors fell into disarray after that maneuver, realizing that it might just be impossible to take it down as far as anyone knows.

The object in white then dropped something into the water before it sharply turned to the right. Alexandre saw what happened and looked at the water it dropped in. To his shock, it's also coming directly at them underwater, judging by the fact the ripples of the sea is in a straight line going for them. It's also fast as well, so the admiral could only helplessly watch as it approaches the slow ship he's on.

...

Muffled: "Hey, hey man wake up, wake up"

Normal: "WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

A soldier jumps back to reality from his nap, must've dozed off while they're getting there. The soldier is a Mariner, boarded up on a helicopter along with the squad to conduct an air assault on the island as part of the invasion.

"Fuck off, man..." he covered his face with his gloved hands.

"Is that how you address your fella?" replied the Mariner who woke him up "Anyways, we're almost there man, better not be sleeping while we're getting off"

"Right..."

The Mariner then re-adjusts himself on his seat, reaching for his weapon to check. It's basically the same weapon that they were initially issued with, but now with picatinny carry handle instead of the integrated scope of the old model. Dubbed the RM13A1, his weapon came with a holographic sight (specifically the ET552) and an IR laser attached on the rails on the right side of the weapon.

He checks his magazines and pulled on the bolt just halfway to check if a round is chambered. Of course, the gun is pointed away from things he does not intend to shoot, otherwise he would've been berated by others by now.

As he watches from the open right side of the helicopter, he sees another of the transport chopper, armed with rocket pods from a distance before an attack helicopter flew by him in an altitude just slightly lower than his.

He then looks down on the sea, the first thing he sees other than the dark water of the night is a massive ship-of-the-line split in half, it was probably hit by a torpedo considering that kind of damage to a warship is typical for it. What's more interesting is that instead of a modern ship, it was a 17th century ship that was split into two pieces.

The Mariner lifts his head a little as his airborne taxi ride goes past the wreck, now seeing another ship on fire. This one possessed more of a carrier and sail ships hybrid design. While an aircraft carrier is certainly strange for early 18th century, he then remembered that wyverns exist in this world, alongside a couple of things, such as magic.

Suffice to say, as soon as he was reminded of such a thing, he stopped questioning it, saving it for another day. Maybe a little talk with Esterrians could help...

The dock is in sight as well, so that means they're close to the shore. He prepares himself for one last time before the landing where he will be evicted from the rotary-wing aircraft...

"Get ready to drop in 10 seconds, NOT 10 FUCKING MINUTES!"

"Gotta love our pilot man..."

The helicopter descends to the ground gradually. The Mariner raises his bullpup rifle up, getting ready to jump off the aircraft. The Venom is now on the ground and almost immediately, troops boarded on it dismounted on both sides. Our soldier upon contact on the ground flipped his NOD (Night Optical Device) down, turning his vision white before his eyes eventually adjusts to a blue-green filter.

(Just imagine a sort of binocular night vision)

The surrounding areas are no longer black, and now they could see who is there and who is not. The Mariner went forward, from the coastline facing the inner land, to prevent reinforcements from intefering with their amphibious operations. The Mariner along with his squad set up their perimeter on a small hill while the helicopters above do a rocket strike before a gun run.

"Alpine-6 has landed, I repeat, Alpine-6 has landed..."

...

Alexandre is now holding onto a piece of wood barely floating on the water. His warship, the flagship, the pride of his, La Ferdina and of KUGNE now lies there, slowly moving down into the bottom of the sea. The ship had been split in half by whatever that underwater munition is, and its aftermath, many would not be fortunate enough to survive, and the admiral is among those who didn't.

He watched more of the air-chopping objects fly past him. Owing to how easily this thing took down his ship, it was a horrifying scene, especially when seeing them launching some more projectiles that would end up in explosions at the dock and the surrounding around. Furthermore, he could barely makes out humanoid figures on some of these monsters, making it clear that an invasion is going on.

'Who are these soldiers?' he thought to himself, as one of them gets close to his position judging by the sound. Alexandre turned to where it came from, and saw one of them approaching. When it got really close, the object then emitted a bright white light at him, causing the admiral to cover his eyes out of reflex.

His hand slowly gets off his sight as he looked upon the aircraft hovering there, it seems like they have found them and will take him away. He looked down in sadness, his prideful self is now splintered in one single explosion that lifted the ship, and his fate remains unknown.

"It has been an honor to serve on the biggest ship of all..."

...

"A bit higher" said the LSO (Landing Signal Officer) over the radio.

The F/A-18D of Jonas and Sebastian is now lining up to land on the FMV Luftskibinfiltrator, the carrier that they got launched from. It has expended the bombs which were dropped on a logistical warehouse and a base inland.

"Little lower... Take it easy... easy... YOU GOT IT!" the F/A-18 touches the flight deck, with Jonas immediately apply full thrust to the aircraft as trained just in case he didn't catch any wires.

Despite the maximum thrust, the Super Hornet seems to only slow down very quickly, which means Jonas had successfully caught one.

"What wire did I catch?" said Jonas

"Uhh, the second one"

"Damn it!"

Sebastian laughed at the fact his pilot was frustrated by the fact he caught a wire that isn't the third one as Jonas would dial down the thrust again with the wire pulling the aircraft back slowly.

"You really want that third wire aren't you?"

"It's my key to promotion, so of course I would go for the third one"

The WSO continued to laugh, as the aircraft started taxiing away to make way for others to land. They have done a lot to contribute to the operation by shooting down 4 wyverns, 1 more from becoming an ace, and bombed a lot of military infrastructure. The only question is whether they would be promoted or not.

...

Now where did we left out at the South-Eastern part of Gevaka again? Ah right, the Mariner air assault. Those soldiers in green with bullpup rifles are tasked to stand their ground and prevent the enemy reinforcements from strengthening the KUGNE defenses.

A little fun fact: Mariner technically also refers to sailors, as the navy is literally named 'Marine'. However, the term became more associated with Marinesoldaters Overfaldsenheder (Marine Assault Units), the one we're seeing here, mainly because some people thought the term Marinesoldater was too long.

"Visual, infantry in front!" called out one of the Mariner. Troops are seen going down a path, directly going for the harbor, to their right side. Following behind them are cavalry and some kind of armored self-propelled carriages.

"No fucking way do they have trucks in this era!"

"That's one thing that I did not expect from a fantasy-ish world..."

"Do we have a .50 CAL?"

"Yeah! I got one!" replied one sporting a bullpup anti-material rifle set up on the hill with bipods.



"Good..." the squad leader then reached for his radio "This is Alpine-6, I got visual on enemy troops approaching the port, any other callsign confirm visual, over"

"Alpine-2, can confirm, over"

"Alpine-5's also seeing hostiles in transit"

"Copy that, Alpine-2 and Alpine-5"

"So what's the call, sir?"

"...Take out their trucks or whatever they are first, remember to aim for the engine thingy... Alpine-6 to Alpine-2 and 5, we are about to engage, the signal will be the sound of our AMR-14 firing"

"Alpine-2, roger that"

"Alpine-5 acknowledged"

The AMR operator takes aim on his scope at what is presumably the engine deck judging by the fact that it's sticking out from the boxy design of the armored carriage in front. He breathes in, steadying his aim as he puts his finger into the trigger guard. And before you know it, a bullet 12.7mm in diameter left the barrel.

The front of the targeted vehicle was completely obliterated with quite an explosion, sending wheels and other parts to the sides and front. Unusual considering that by the Old World's logic, the engine should've just smoke up and burn instead of just literally exploding into pieces.

"...Add that to the list of things I didn't expect..."

That would subsequently do some damage against the approaching formation with the surrounding personnel being taken out of fight, both infantry and cavalry while the rest went into full panic sprinkled with out of control horses. The Mariner squads then opened fire upon the forces, causing even more chaos among the enemy.

With the help of the night vision and IR lasers, they were able to score accurate hits from more than a hundred of meters away, outranging the enemy who used inaccurate muskets. Additionally, their firepower is second to none, as their rifle is semi-automatic that only have to be reloaded every 30+1 rounds going downrange, not mentioning the machine guns and marksman rifle (which had lower ammo capacity but is more accurate at longer ranges).

The 3 Alpine squads cuts down on the early 18th century forces that were unfortunate enough to find themselves in this predicament every seconds, reloading quickly with others still providing fire and more truck-like vehicle blown into smithereens.

...

"What in the Gods' names is this?"

The troops from the Royal Saogaulia Army were marching towards the harbor in the South-Eastern coast to reinforce the defense after it was struck by the mysterious wyverns of unknown origin when they got attacked by some forces, again unknown. Unfortunately enough, the Saogaulian contingent did not prepare for such an engagement inland as they went under a presumption that if the enemy is going to come from the sea, it's going to be from the ports.

The first thing they heard was deafening zip or cracks for some soldiers followed by an explosion of one the carriages in front. The carriage, advertised as impervious to any kind of attack was penetrated by some kind of projectile, and it wasn't the one they were all familiar with. The crystal that powered the carriage was shattered and as a result, it catastrophically exploded with the front compartment also being blown off.

They knew that the magic crystals do not fare well with taking a powerful enough physical force, but that was thought to be impossible

Many of the soldiers frantically fired at the general directions the shots came from to no avail, their firepower is too much for them to handle, and that's not including the accuracy at this range. They were far beyond what even the most accurate musket can reach, pratically outranging them in an impossible fashion by 'barbarian' standard.

"Charge- AGGGHHH!"

Cavalry proved to be nothing more than easy targets after the foot soldiers with musket. With their horses, their profile stood out the most, almost guaranteed to be hit by the hail fire. Eventually the cavalry unit they brought with them were wiped out alongside around 3/4 of their armored carriages fleet. More 50% of their fighting force were lost within a minute, and many more followed suit in short succession.

Faced with such unacceptable losses, the Saogaulian forces had to retreat, they had little men to fight back and even if they had the number, this army of unknown origin will still win out anyway with superior firepower and ranges. All that's left were soldiers running away from the hectic one-sided firefight, with the last carriage supplied by their La Ferdinan allies eventually succumb to the powerful projectile.

...

"They're retreating!"

"Cut them down as much as you can before they escape!"

The Flash Mariner continued to fire upon the enemies of magic and inferior technologies, taking out as much as they can. The semi-automatic and full auto fire continued ripping through the hills of the Gevaka landscape, until the 18th century army were down to a very small number, many of them are far, making them hard to get accurately hit.

"Cease fire!"

The Flash forces stopping pulling on the trigger altogether, as the reinforcements were lying there, defeated leaving much of it being a carcass of the mighty formation. The Mariner takes heavy breaths before he reached to his radio, putting down his rifle.

"Actual, this is Alpine-6, give me an update on that landing party"

He waited for a response...

"Alpine-6, landing party has arrived in all 5 Pansartransporter, no resistance met from the hostiles, they just surrendered"

"Copy that Actual"

He once again pants, relieved that the landing party successfully captured the port without a single shot fired. It has been quite a long time, his neck is now straining out from the weight of his helmet, but the Mariner can sense that it will be over soon. He holds on to his squad's position, awaiting the Pansartransporter and other infantry to relieve Alpine-6, as well as Alpine-2.

...

"They did WHAT?!"

The Saogaulian king Pires X, who sent troops as part of the Northern Expedition of the Kingdoms Union Gestrae were being briefed on the situation happening today, and it doesn't seem like that is good news.

"Yes your majesty, they were able to take the entire coastline by morning" said the army's general, Marciano Silva.

"How could this have happened?"

"According to our report, they attacked us by night, about 3:30 in the morning"

The king facepalmed, in confusion as to why and how did this force manage to take control of large parts of the island from the glorious 7-nation-army of KUGNE. He looked up once again and asked more questions.

"Who is behind this attack?"

"We suspect it was Flashia, but unfortunately we cannot confirm that"

Pires had the thought that it could not be Flashia, simply because it's an uncivilized country, and an uncivilized country wouldn't have the technology to defeat their mighty army. But nevertheless, he could not help but to not rule out the enemy republic due to its proximity and reported desire to take back their lost territory.

Their other Kingdoms Union counterpart, specifically those of Gestrae continent seems to have received similar news, and plans are being drawn up to relieve and save the encircled army in the island.

"So what will we do your majesty?"

"...We will assemble a naval fleet, they only defeated us because they had the element of surprise, but they will collapse under the great Kingdoms Union Gestrae fleet!"

Silva nodded.

"You are right your majesty"

"Ha! When was I ever wrong? Anyways, you may be dismissed"

The general stood up from his kneeling position and turned back, taking his leave, as he gets the military to prepare for the upcoming counterattack.

...

"...And that is what had happened with Flashia's side of story" retold Gessel, who summed up the event at Gevaka for his Commonwealth's Queen.

"All this happened around the same time as our offensive?" questioned Marie III who was particularly surprised by the timing of the Flash assault to the Commonwealth offensive in Havenklein.

"Yes indeed, your majesty, they have timed their attack right when ours happened"

The queen is just amazed how both events happening in two different places were close in time together. She sees what this could bring to to Esterria and Flashia, the first being the element of surprise retained as information takes time to get across, preventing the KUG from mounting up a response to assist their rebel ally now that they have bigger problems to tend to.

"Such impeccable timing... Oh right, do we have a report about this event?"

"Not yet Your Majesty, our intelligence corps was only just aware of this. However Flashia already made a list from the battle of the Gevakan coastline, and you might want to take a look at this"

Gessel took out the pure white papers grouped together and gave it to the young queen. Marie took a look at them, seeing big and small, neat letters that can be perfectly read, something that has been to be expected from their Federal Republic ally as of recent. The report is written in the Inter-Civilized Language, or Builtish as they call it, so she could understand the content hassle-free. One section particularly stood out to her...

--CASUALTIES REPORT, OPERATION FIRESTORM-- Gevaka Coastline Assault

Defense Forces Injured: 22 (8 Mariner, 14 Faldskærmtropper) Pansartransporter Hjul 83: 2 lost

Many of the injuries are either hits of enemy musket or stabbing, while in Faldskærmtropper's case, at least those who opted for paradropping, it includes leg injuries upon landing. 2 Pansartransport Hjul 77's were lost due to unexpected rough sea, with both of them sinking. Luckily all occupants got out safely and has since been rescued.

KINGDOMS UNION GESTRAE Killed: ~14,500 Injured: ~49,000 Captured: ~10,000

Most are killed and injured by the initial airstrikes, destroying military infrastructures which in turn crippled their military capabilities. Those who surrendered reportedly 'lost their entire will to fight' and amount of such cases is also reported to increase over time.

--------------------

The Esterrian queen was shocked by the numbers she is seeing, up to a ten of thousands dead versus a mere 22 Flash soldiers injured? How was that possible? The queen thought to herself as she looks through the report, which also gave a clear picture of what ships were sunk, and among them was none other than the La Ferdinan flagship, captured in color, clearly split in half.

Marie III knew they were powerful in a way, but this kind of power is just on a whole another level, perhaps even more than that of Verdecana, judging by the fact they only sent in 10 thousands, so really KUG should've got the advantage in number with some almost 300,000.

She sighs in relief, as it means there won't be any potential invasion from KUG anytime soon, as the Northern Expedition is now held up, surrounded on all sides of the island as of printing this report, which is about an hour ago. In a way, Flashia helped them to focus more West and South, rendering North solely the Federal Republic's problem.

...

"...As expected, they have found themselves in a precarious situation... I have made the right decision this time..."

...

Broken Arrow in military lingo refers to the loss of nuclear warheads, i.e. in an accident such as that incident over Spain where a B-52 collided with a tanker. Out of context though, I feel like it sounds really cool.

Like 'Steel Horizon', it is named after its theme song, which in turn is from GHPC.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Patch note (6/3/2024): Fixed a dated oversight, 77 has been replaced a long time ago with 83