Rewritten first/Flash part of 'And to Push Forward"

Dis: https://discord.gg/UqgavrsYUd

...

"Good morning Kawagrzmotia! This is the Silver Eagle 142.6 Radio Station, my name is Damian Głowacki, coming at you to bring to thee news. To begin our broadcast, we first would like to get you up to speed about the situation of Gevaka, part of the island state of Agevær. As you may have known for the past few months, the sovereignty of Agevær and the Federal Republic in general had their sovereignty violated by hostile early 18th century armies as they have invaded the island, months after our sudden cut off from our dear home.

As we had hoped before, the Defense Forces struck back at the archaic armies with the Luftforsvar along with the Marine conducting strikes on military infrastructure before the Mariner and the paratroopers dropped in in early morning. As of now, a spokesperson has confirmed that our forces had completely cut off the rest of the enemy forces' mean of getting in and out of the island.

According to the MoD, along with all the magic things, they had found slaves, many were cruelly treated, resembling more of barbarians, which... by the way is what they apparently call us according to our Commonwealth friend. These treatment include forced labor, physical abuse, and... rape... Yeah, I'm not exactly comfortable with talking about this in detail...

...Anyways, the Federal Government had also stated that these liberated slaves will be taken in as refugees in the meantime, while also announcing plans of accepting former slaves that qualify as citizens.

Speaking of Esterria, we now move onto Havenklein. This happened around the same time as our assault on the Kingdoms Union-occupied Gevaka. With the support of the Luftforsvar, they launched a counteroffensive that pushed the rebel forces back by a large margin. The Prime Minister, Gessel Kiel has said that they have essentially reversed the rebel's territory gain of one month in a few hours.

He would also go on to state that Flash equipment donated to the country proved very effective against what the rebels had to offer, destroying many while losing a scarce amount. The Esterrian Royal Army intends to continue its advance until the rebels are thoroughly defeated" - The Silver Eagle

Lernoa Ocean, near the island of Gevaka, 15/7/1702 A massive fleet of the Kingdoms Union Gestrae's state members with the exception of the Kingdom of Naeslagtland, who still refuses to join in the Battle of Gevaka would appear over the horizon. After getting past the just West of Esterria and the Southern landmass of Flashia, unhindered for whatever reason, they would sail towards the island to heed their counterparts on the ground's call for help.

From the looks of it, an 'unknown' army, though by now widely accepted as those from Flashia had attacked the Northern Expeditionary, known as the 7-nation-army, and somehow managed to completely surround them on all sides of the island. This is where the gigantic fleet consisting hundreds of ships would come in.

Captain Svetislav is on board his ship-of-the-line today, as Gošbania sends its ships to contribute to the effort to break the encirclement. Because it's the flagship of the Gošbanian Navy he was assigned to, it was given a rare privilege of leading the entire fleet, along with other ships such as those of Saogaulia and La Ferdina.

"How many ships does the barbarian navy has?" asked Svetislav to one of his sailors.

"Sir, if our intel is not wrong, then it would be no more than a few hundred"

For many, it's a very shocking news at that since the supposedly primitive army was able to turn the Northern Expedition's defense into a full-on disaster in hours. Nevertheless, the KUG pushed on, adamant that they could win out as the enemy only have hundreds of ships, not to mention that it would be unlikely that most of those would be at the occupied island.

As they got close to the island in battle formation, they see 5 grey structures in front of them, quite strange to our Gošbanian captain here. He takes out his spyglass to take a look at what they're looking at. Turns out, they were sailless ships coming towards them, an utterly shocking revelation for Svetislav.

"How are they able to move without sails?" he pondered. And then he heard a voice coming from the ship.

"This is the Flash Navy! You are entering the territorial waters of the Federal Republic or Flashia! Turn back immediately or we will be forced to engage!"

The captain was surprised by the fact that this uncivilized country can speak the Inter-Civilized Language. He looked again, they seem to only have one gun on the front of the ships, which made him grin as he thought that they would stand no chance with that single puny gun. He then sees a fireball, fired from a La Ferdinan ship to his right at one of the Flash rather small warships, and then finding their mark.

The crew cheered on as the opposing ship was covered in burst of inferno. However when it dissipated in a short while, they found the ship all but damaged. The cheering abruptly stopped at the sight of a ship receiving only a charred black mark and nothing else whatsoever, followed by a whole load of confusion.

"Okay, your choice then..."

Suddenly, 5 of the ships emitted a bright yellow flash and then almost immediately, 5 of the allied warships near his exploded upon impact by some sort of projectile. The anti-magic coating couldn't stop it at all. Then another 5 in a few seconds. The captain's eyes were widened, coming to the realization that it's not simply a gun, it's an terrifyingly accurate, fast-firing and powerful one.

"What was that-"

"One of ours just went-"

"What is happening?!"

"Dear gods have mercy on us!"

Those are the words of some ships' crew's manacomm before they met their fate of being sent to the bottom of the sea. Svetislav was horrified, the enemy ships are too far for the KUG ships to engage, which also sent the crews into a panic. He ordered his manacomm officer:

"We need wyverns into the skies right now, destroy those 5 ships!"

The officer nodded, instantly getting to work. The captain hopes this would help the situation, as ships to his knowledge cannot fight back against any sort of air unit. He hoped this would be able to destroy the 5 grey ships as more and more of KUG ships are destroyed.

A few moments of silent praying later, he then sees a peculiar sight, one of the ship had flames shooting out of its deck.

"...Did it just make a fatal mistake?"

And then another one, third one, fourth and fifth experienced the same thing. He looked at the direction of the first ship that did this, and sees a projectile of light being launched into the skies. No, this 'fatal mistake' is what they intended to do. The projectiles would arc themselves and flew past his vessel.

The Gošbanian captain was confused for a good while, that is until he hears yet another series of horrifying manacomm soon after.

"One wyvern just got blown up!"

"What the? EVASIVE MANEUVER!"

"I think I got it now- OH SHI-"

"I can't dodge them they just keep going for me-"

"What kind of arrow is this-"

By the looks of it, it seems that the wyverns are NOT even safe from the wrath of the 5 Flash warships, as they launched more and more of these projectiles into the skies. Captain Svetislav felt his sanity diminishing seconds by seconds, their ships outranged while the wyverns are just sniped out of the skies like they were nothing more than prey.

A few of these wyverns would eventually come into view though, getting his hope up again as the surviving wyverns would dive upon the enemy warships. The wyverns closed distance with the ships in front of their allies, ready to discharge fireball at the ships. That is until they fired out an uncountable amount of light projectiles, and the scale did not do anything to protect the wyvern from the line of fire.

The Gošbanian captain of his country's flagship looked in horror as the feared wyverns of the Kingdoms Union Gestrae splashed down on the water below, their remains are now bound to the bottom of the sea.

"So that's how it is..." mumbled Svetislav before a shell of these grey warship cannons hit his and the ammunition inside exploded. This flagship of Gošbania had never fired a shot, and yet now it resigns to its fate to the bottom of the blue.

...

"I love the smell of 127mm in the night"

FMV Læreatflyve destroyer is the flagship of its class of the same name. Armed with VLS, torpedoes and a gun, the guided missile destroyer can take on any targets, whether it be sea, air or land. Today it is joined by 4 other destroyers, as part of the Gevaka Task Force, defending the island from any counterattack on water.

After picking them up, the task force was directed to face a massive fleet comprising of hundreds of ships, but even with impressive numbers, it was no match to the advanced technology of the modern destroyers. This did not saved it from getting a burn on the front of its hull though.

"Man, how are we going to get rid of that spot later on?"

"We'll figure that one out later"

The ships continued to fire their 127/64 gun at the wooden ship-of-the-line and even some ironclads of the early 18th century, destroying one after another, firing in consecutive shots in 16-20 rounds per minute.

"This is Jack-Inter-Record-Neigh, give us status report, we are currently engaging the fleet dead ahead"

"Jack-Inter-Record-Neigh, Hat-Beta-Dud-Dud is currently engaging the enemies from their starboard"

"Neigh-Charcoal-Hat-Alpine here, we are hitting them from behind"

Hat-Beta-Dud-Dud (HBDD) is the callsign of a frigate while Neigh-Cart-Hat-Alpine (NCHA) is another destroyer of the same class. Somehow, in a sort of miracle, the other ships had managed to sneak around, surrounded the fleet and started to pummel them with 76mm to their right side and more of 127mm from their rear.

"I had my doubts at first, but now it works wonder!"

It's a battle plan that turned into something that turned out better than widely thought of, with the few ships dominating the sea even against a vastly numerically superior forces.

...

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Our ships! They're getting sunk one by one at fast pace!"

"Are we going to retreat?"

"Negative, their navy ships are attacking us from the East and South, it was a trap all along"

"WHAT?!?"

"It's the harsh truth, we could only pray..."

"The gods are on their side now! What point does praying have right now?!"

...

Coastline of Gevaka, Flash-controlled territory While the naval battle is ongoing, ground troops would once again gear up after having their numbers built up now that the beach head and effectively the entire coastal area has been secured. These additional troops include those of the Land Army, Mariner and a particular special unit...

"Cykady naaaaaaa Cykladach..."

The Kawagrzmotian Hussars, one of the elite units of the Flaske Forsvaret of Kawagrzmotian origin (obviously) that specializes in offensive operations. The unit was famed to have led Flashia to victory in counteroffensive operation against Hatemean forces in the Reunification War. They join with other regular units as well as some Guards Regiments as part of Operation Firestorm.

Being more of a quick reaction force (QRF), which is why they got here before others did except for Mariner and Faldskærmtropper units that were already there in the opening days of the operation, the 125th and G Regiments are armed with the best that the domestic MIC could offer, from Gladahjuland down to Satkia.

For now, the Defense Forces continues to hold the line, cutting the KUGNE off from any way of resupplying, slowly but surely deteriorating the enemy troops' morale and fighting capability. To speed up the process, artillery shells are sometimes lobbed and airstrikes continues to be a regular occurrence, further worsening their overall situation. So far, it worked wonders as more and more of the enemy surrendered themselves in to the Flash forces.

However, an offensive to clean up the rest is still bound to happen, as the occupiers are rather stubborn themselves. Spirits among the soldiers in green are high, but most were left with nothing much to do in spite of being in an active warzone, leading to some shenanigans amongst the ranks to curb the boredom, such as the trash cannon incident...

That is until 'Phase 2' was finally greenlighted.

Without delays, the troops had scrambled from their barracks, their equipment, armor over their FLPAT uniform, helmets put on their person and grabbed their issued weapons. Vehicles mostly from the armored units such as the ones from 217th Brigade start up their engine, troops mounting up on their respective vehicles.

"Hey when are we get going?"

"Be patient man, it will be real soon"

...

It has been 11 days since the Northern Expedition got trapped in this island by Flash forces in every corner of the islands ever since they invaded the island. With much of their infrastructure are destroyed by the initial hours, and struck on later days, their ability to effectively fight back has substantially been cut. To make things worse, desertion of concerning amounts happens on a daily basis, something that was unheard of prior as soldiers began to lose hope.

"Я жду ответа, больше надежд нету..." sang one Varikan soldier strumming his guitar "Скоро кончится лето..."

The Tsar's garrison at Gevaka ran their day as the past week, faces all gloomy, longing for their safe return back to their home. The officers in charge of these troops aren't that better either, with their focus now is to survive and find a way to get as many of their own out as possible.

"Are the gods with us?" murmured one officer sitting beside one of his unit's carriages "Or have they abandoned us...?"

The soldiers hang around their base, playing some chess and sports to try and keep their mood up when suddenly they hear a distant roar. The troops looked up to the direction where the sound came from. The roar became louder and more distinct in each second, becoming recognizable for many as it came for them...

"IRON WYVERNS!" one cried out.

It was none other than the sound of the dreaded wyverns of Flashia, which were proven to be impossible to shoot down and extremely deadly, harassing them and their allies every single day. The Variks on site immediately dropped what they were doing and rushed to cover in panic, keeping their heads as low as possible before the impact.

KABOOM

As the bombs struck their base, they soon come to the realization that this bombardment is more intense than what they were expecting for the past days. The strikes killed and injured more than what they expected, and the base sustained heavy damage.

As the bombing would shortly subsides, a scout who had just arrived to the base before having to duck down would stand back up again and ran up to the officer in command, still keeping a low profile as he cautiously assessed the situation.

"Sir!" the scout would tiredly gets his attention "The Flashian Army! They are advancing!"

The commander would once again becomes distressed. Flashia had finally made their move on the ground when they were least prepared and in an extreme state of shock.

Considered as uncivilized by everybody else the Esterrians, the military of the Federal Republic was once thought to be of little concern. But since their coastal assault, everything screamed might beyond their comprehension, giving the present Gestraen troops a reason to be fearful of the men in green overnight as they have managed to take out a large portion of the 7-nation-army without giving the occupiers a chance to bring down even a single man.

"What are they bringing?"

"Self-propelled carriage! They have guns and cannons on them!"

The Varikan officer vaguely remembers hearing about a prototype of a self-propelled carriage with gun integrated onto the carriage itself, but cannon? That was out of the picture, makes him wonder how they were able to do such a feat.

But it was no time to do so, Flashia's ground forces are out there likely coming for his unit's position. Seeing no other option right from the get go, the commanding officer would come up with a decision:

"Retreat to the heart of the island! We don't have enough to fight back!"

Indeed, the situation in general have horrid for this particular garrison of the Tsar's Army, so there wasn't anything he and his subjects could do at this point. His soldiers would comply without question, quickly loading up their carriages and prepare for their journey back into further inland of this island of Flashia.

...

Minutes later "Barracks in front, no visual on hostiles at this time"

As Phase 2 comes into play, a platoon of 4 Pansartransporter K 92A3 (CV9040C) would be heading to what seems like a base of some sort in a column. Through the thermal sight, it doesn't seem to have anyone loitering around, but they're still unsure about its current state.

"Prepare for dismount!"

Inside the steel hull of the armored transporters with their 40mm cannon aiming at the fort and its surroundings are 6 fully equipped Pansarjægers each. The rough roads of Gevaka island throws the mechanized troops around, bumping their heads against the wall every now and then with their helmets saving them from concussions. It definitely isn't a pleasant ride, but it is necessary as the vehicle provides protection from what their enemies may be packing.

After moments of being thrown back and forth, the vehicles would slow down to a halt.

"Dismount! Dismount!"

The squads in their IFV's rushes out of the Pansartransporters from the singular rear hatch, flooding both sides of the vehicle whilst also covering for each other right outside the buildings of stone. After shortly reconsolidating, infantrymen would take formation to the front of the vehicle.

They began to make their slow approach to the entrance, finding nothing much to note other than debris from the past airstrike with the vehicle crawling along in support. Soldiers kept watch of their surrounding, creeping closer to the base in each steady steps.

The line of IFV would eventually stop right outside the base with one dismount squad bunching up on the wall of the front entrance. With a hand signal of their SL, the first two went in from both sides, down the short entrance arc to the inside, then the rest of the squad followed.

Upon getting inside, the squad would encounter 3 others coming in from right with 2 and left with 1 squad. Establishing multiple crossfires, the dismounts are able to quickly clear the yard before moving on inside, taking their precious time to meticulously clear out the inside out

Multiple door kickings and sweepings later, as with the case of outside, they found... nothing but debris from the airstrikes. Disappointed, the infantrymen walks out of the buildings, weapons on safe and their posture relaxed.

"Just a SITREP, the base is empty, there's no one but us here"

In the meantime, the Flash personnel would look around the base for a bit, either to just pique their interest or...

"You see that?" one of the jægers would point down at the soil.

"Yep, I see it..."

Wheel marks of carriages are seen around the area, seemingly heading out to the heart of the island judging by the lack of such marks pointing out to their directions where they came from

"...Might explains why supplies and other stuff are missing"

"Left behind some muskets too..."

It was readily clear that this base was abandoned by the time the Flashia decidrd crossed into the KUGNE occupied territory even further.

"Welp..." the infantryman shrugged.

...

Esterflaske Joint Airbase, Esterria The airbase operated by both Esterrian Wyvern Corps and the Luftforsvar of Flashia has now received a name alongside new additions. Originally, they only sent Harriers as part of their mission to support Esterria, however now, F-15s are joining in the fray as the massive gains made by the Commonwealth made it clear they may need something that reaches further.

Interestingly enough, this airbase also has 2 kind of runway on both sides, one is paved and the other is unpaved soil, for the wyverns and the fighter jets respectively. The one for wyvern is unpaved because of their claws being used as weapons when things get close and personal, and no one really wants such a weapon to be damaged by a flat hadd surface.

Plus it hurts the reptiles.

An A400M cargo aircraft lands on the paved concrete runway, arriving once a week or more to deliver supplies needed for the Luftforsvar, such as fuel, ammunition, bombs, missiles, etc. Flash personnel would be already there to help with unloading the cargo from the plane, all the while, three wyverns prepare to take off.

"I wonder why they're taking off this early...?"

"How about we ask questions later?"

The ground crew of Flashia continues to work on unloading the cargo off the Atlas, while the Esterrians do whatever they're doing. Maybe they'd get their answers later on...

...

Lernoa Ocean, near Gevaka "There's a whole lot of woods on the waters here..."

The Gevaka Task Force was at sea engaging ships of the early 18th century, and now they're cleaning up what was left of the KUG naval fleet. In the aftermath of the sea battle, countless of wood pieces.

"Help me get this guy up right here" one of the personnel on the boat pointed at someone on a floating wood. He seems to be a captain of a ship judging by his uniform.

Others would converge on the port side of the RHIB (Rigid-Hull Inflated Boat) and began pulling the body up to the boat. Two of them stay by the captain, with one checking his pulse.

"You got anything?"

"Nope, he's dead"

"Not surprised, he probably been here for awhile and got blood all over him..."

As the crew prepares to put the body in black bag, one spoke in realization of something:

"I know it might sounds crazy but is it just me? Or does he look like Oliver Magovac?"

Another looked back at the face of the dead captain.

"Oh yeah, now that you mentioned it, he does look like the Foreign Minister..."

Indeed the deceased captain's appearance is eerily similar to that of the Flash Foreign Minister of Nexucian origin with silver hair and a beard. The only missing thing is a pair of glasses, which Oliver wears as he is short-sighted.

The helmsman stays seated at where he steers the boat while others get the corpse bagged up. One of them would then stand on his feet and walks back to him.

"Long day isn't it Lukas?" he said to the helmsman.

"Yeah, Joakim, quite a long day, clearing the sea of bodies after bodies..."

"Heh, it just happens these guys wouldn't give up"

What followed after that is just sound of waves crashing, as three picks up the body bag and put it on the side of the boat.

"Hey Lukas, you heard of that incident from one of our ships?"

"What incident?"

"A big ass ship rammed one of our frigates to the East of the enemy formation"

"Wait, hang on, why wouldn't they sink it before it reached them?"

"They said the mag was out around that time and they were scrambling to reload thing, the others were too busy with the other ships"

"I see then... carry on..."

"So the vessel rammed our frigate in a last ditch attempt to take one of our Marine ships out..."

"...And how did it go?"

"Oh you know... crews immediately got gunned down, and the warship got sunk, ours only got a scratch of the paint"

Lukas chuckled to the fact that apparently a bigger ship got sunk just by ramming a smaller one.

"Makes sense, they're wood, we're metal"

"Exactly, but the idea an armed mighty ship could be sent to the bottom by simply ramming a normal one is still kind of funny... at least it ain't a cruise ship..."

(coughs Naiguatá coughs)

The helmsman and one of the body collectors would watch as the boat bounce up and down to the waves of the ocean while filling up with black long bags.

...

"Be advised, observations from recon: Large formation of line infantry and trucks up ahead, cannons' presence confirmed"

"Næsehorn copies, we're moving in fast"

"FIRE!"

"On the way!"

THUMP*-CLANG-clang-clang...

A Pansar 82A1 of the Marinesoldater Overfaldsenheder fires its 120mm cannon, launching HEAT (High-Explosive Anti-Tank) shell at a formation of armored self-propelled carriages before the loader slap down the safety lever. The tank along with its platoon and company is part of the phase 2 offensive into KUG-occupied Gevaka.

"Target! Next!" as an unlucky carriage gets obliterated by the high explosive shell. By this point many more of the carriages lie on the ground, burned and destroyed beyond repair, but for some reason, they refuse to stop coming at them in numbers.

"HEAT, truck! Left!"

The loader pressed a button, opening the blast door to a separate compartment containing the munitions as well as causing the gun to aim up, breach down for ease of reload. This is due to the fact that the breech, when the gun is at 90 degrees, is leveled with the loader's head which makes it harder for him to reload the gun as he would have to gather his strength to lift such heavy rounds.

"UP!" as the loader flip the lever up, gun now ready to fire.

"Identified!" reported back the gunner.

"FIRE!"

"On the way!"

THUMP-CLANG-clang...

The Pansar yet again sends off the 120mm HEAT shell into another steel horseless carriage, which would cause another catastrophic explosion. The formation of tanks move forward, having gone past an entire formation with ease, to the occupied territory of the slave owners.

"Target! Cease fire!"

...

One of the soldiers lies on the ground, shortly waking up to the sound of explosions and cannon firing after having been knocked out trying to get out of his carriage from the rear hatch before it was hit, sending him flying into the ground in the process.

He groans as he regained his consciousness, putting his hand on his head. He then pushes his hand down on the soil, lifting his head up and looked around. It's just burning wreckages of carriages, dead bodies lying about and him, still in on piece somehow.

"Where's my gun?" he frantically looked around for his musket he was holding onto before being knocked cold. The soldier would also look back at the carriage he was in, only to see it burning in flames as with other carriages, it seems to him that luck was on his side.

He'd finally register a metal squeaking sound, and upon turning to the source, the big carriages of green with cannons came in sight, emerging from the black smokes. Out of reflex, he lies flat on the ground, playing dead and waiting for them to go away.

The soldier was trembling, silently praying none of the big metal monsters pays any mind to him. The squeaking noise would then slowly but surely fades away, and he once again lift up his head. In front of him is the back of these monsters, none facing his way by this point.

Seeing this, the soldier quickly got up to his feet and started sprinted in the opposite direction of the big beasts, hoping to find safety somewhere while trying not to be seen by anyone else fellow Northern Expedition troops.

...

A Saogaulian general is out on his horse observing the field from far away with his other high-ranking subjects. He watches as the army marches in formation, the carriage leading the way and the infantry with muskets following behind. In terms of number, we're looking at at least a division, quite a big number.

As he watches from a hill, he remains adamant that this will be an easy victory, which is something that may be attributed by the lack of bombs being dropped on them, even after days following the initial assault. While their feat is undeniably impressive, he believes that the Flashian Army wouldn't not be able to secure a victory on the ground as he thought they only won the first battles with surprise.

As the soldiers march onto the battlefield, he was prideful of the unit he is responsible for... and then he hears a faint low-pitched whistle in the air. Are those the 'white and grey angels of death' that many of his comrades mentioned? No... from his memories talking to few others, those things roar, not leave behind whistles that gets louder.

He look around the skies trying to figure out what it is, as the whistling steadily gets louder and louder by the day. Eventually the peaked before fading away. Almost immediately, the ground under the boots of the Saogaulian soldiers suddenly erupted, scaring his and the officers' horses in the process.

The series of explosions continue as they try to calm their horses down while the general is just shocked by the sudden large explosions of the ground, precisely targeting the formation in particular.

The repeated eruption has now come to an end and what it left is just horrific beyond word. With leveled soil comes with dead bodies and destroyed carriages scattering the field, leaving only a few survivors. It just happened so quick, yet so destructive, the general and his military officers were left speechless.

"Such devastation!" would be the only thing he could exclaim, not having seen such a thing happening right before his eyes.

Those that survived either ran away or were cut down by projectiles of light that came from their South as cracks could be heard. The general looked at where the projectile came from, it was far, very far away, and he couldn't see anyone firing at what remained of formation at all.

"Impossible! Are they're using advanced invisibility magic?"

Invisibility magic is self-explanatory, it conceals the user and those the mage casted the spell on with optical camouflage. However, one quick swing or gunshot should instantly break that spell as it could not compensate for fast, sudden motion unless it's been casted by some of the best mages, hence advanced.

Before he could find out the answer, a bullet zipped by and his head lunched back, abruptly turning his vision black as his body drops lifelessly from the saddle to the ground, panic fully settling into the rest of those who were with him.

...

"Økse, just took out one of their commanders" said a sniper on the radio.

One of the sniper teams responsible for providing information of enemy movements as a reconnaissance element from far away had scored a kill on who was clearly a high-ranking officers, adding a tally to the amount of deaths of their commanding element.

"God when will they learn?" commented a tank commander on the move.

For the Flash troops, killing their generals and commanders over the past days is like a walk in the park, they're always there, close by watching over their subordinates. While it is certainly boring in the after several shot, it did make the Defense Forces' job easier as the enemy were getting more uncoordinated as time go on and contributing to the crashing down of their morale.

The tanks move forward to the decapitated forces, pieces of carriage and body parts everywhere on the desolate field with craters of the artillery. Some are still alive, lying on the ground, screaming in pain and rolling around.

The platoon moved on, navigating around the wrecks and bodies, leaving the injured behind for ones of medical specialization. They push forward more into the KUGNE-held territory with 4 tanks, an IFV and 6-man infantry squads.

...

A Mariner squad is now near the heart of the KUGNE occupation, looking upon a large fortress surrounded by concrete walls. While the defense look impressive, by Flash standard, it's redundant as anything explosive such as those fired from a recoilless rifle can punch a hole into the structure or even simply completely bypassed by air, something the Faldskærmstropper is known to be good at.

"What do you see Sarge?" said one of the Mariner to the SL with the binocular.

"A big ass wall with a big ass wooden gate, and smokes as well"

The smokes are a part of the airstrikes that targeted infrastructures inside, such as a storage and some of the living quarters.

"Looks like something's still standing..."

And it's none other than the castle, which is so far the biggest structure in the complex of the fortress. The reason why it wasn't struck is due to the possibility of slaves being held inside given the past discovery of similar structures previously occupied by troops being the same ones holding them captives.

"So what's the call, sir?"

"Get the tube up on the gate, let the others deal with the rest... after that, we push up with our vic"

"Roger that..." the grunt then turns to his other side "Stoner, you there?"

...

"Our armies keep faltering to the barbarians! They are pushing us at such great speed!"

In the fortress where the heart of KUGNE central command bodies are, a group of commanders called in an emergency meeting, and it's even more urgent since that initial attack on the occupying forces in the coastline now that Flashian forces are now pushing the Gestraean contingent of Kingdoms Union on all sides.

"Calm down Tomić, we will discuss how would we defeat them" replied Enzo the La Ferdinan noble who represents his contingent amongst the fortress defenders.

The Gošbanian general would then take a deep breath to calm down, as the meeting and the discussion continues as normal.

"As you all know, the barbarians had trapped us inside since that initial attack and is now pushing on all corners..." the noble went through the overall situation "However, I have devised a plan"

The rest listened in to what he has to say, being interested about this plan that could potentially save them.

"So what am I suggesting is we will hold the line, set up traps and use the fortress layout to our advantage until the rescue fleet arrive..."

The noble finishes, being confident of his plan while expecting some acknowledgement... Only to see the sight of his comrades looking at each other, quiet and uncertain.

"So... who is going to tell him?"

Enzo was confused, not knowing why they're so uncertain about his plan. He then raised his voice.

"Gentlemen why are you so worried? Is there something wrong?"

The other generals continued to look at each before Tomić revealed the harsh truth.

"The rescue fleet... all of them... sunk"

Upon hearing the news, his eyes widened.

"They've been sunk? All of them?"

Others looked down on the ground with sadness on their face. It was clear they were not kidding about the hundreds-strong fleet got sent to the bottom of the ocean. The general sighed and the noble facepalmed in disappointment.

"No matter... if we're going by the nobleman's plan, we still have time to set up trap-" before the Gošbanian was cut off by the sound of a faint explosion, clearly nearby the fort.

"What was that?" questioned the La Ferdinan noble before more followed and a soldier barging into the room clearly stressed out.

"The Flashians! They're here! They already breached the wall!"

"What?!" said Tomić, no one expected that the enemy can get here so soon let alone putting holes on the walls that quickly.

"Order all troops to battle station now!" shouted Tomić as the generals rush out of the room.

With the enemy right at the doorstep and the fleet now gone, they're afraid that they would not be able to stand their ground for longer, but they still intends to fight until the last man.

...

"Last man in!"

The Mariner squad is now mounted on a 6-wheeled APC after they put a hole on the gate's wall, effectively breaching it with the Pansarværnsvåben 89 they brought with them, now heading towards the fortress

"Now all of us are here, here's the plan boys" he relayed to his squad "We will clear every building near the big castle vicinity on the Southern side, after that we join up with other squad to knock on the castle, is that clear?!"

"Yes, sir!" shouted each of the soldiers in the squad.

Their ride continues to rock the Marinesoldater inside as the wheels keep rolling and the machine gun blasting anything the gunner could see. This goes on for a while before it eventually to a stop.

"Dismount!"

The soldiers wasted no time to get off the vehicle, opening the world to them via the rear hatch and jumped out with 2 staying back covering behind the APC as they exit one by one to the right and left.

"C'mon let's go!" shouted the squad lead as they begin the operation of getting in uninvited and clear the enemies out, his squad running along with him.

...

The silver cat girl is once again cowering in fear in her cell, behind bars. The explosions had came to the walls of where she is being held once more with the addition of gunfires right outside.

"M-Make it stop! No!"

Again, she is just simply tortured by the sound, as if her years of being nothing more than sex slave isn't bad enough.

She then hears the door creaks open then closed shut, followed by footsteps coming to her cell, later revealed to be her owner, who she feared the most. It seems he had an intent on bringing her out as the noble .

"Rise before me kitty, you're coming with me" ordered the La Ferdinan who would grab her by the hair, dragging the miserable feline out of her cell, hopelessly squealing as they went.

...

The 125th Kawagrzmotian Hussars is one of the most well-known and revered unit in the Defense Forces. Consisting of ethnic Kawagrzmots, they are among the toughest and the best, sporting equipments that makes them look like special forces. Of course, they use Kawagrzmotian firearms, as they're of Kawagrzmotian origin.

"Muere idiota incivilizad-!"

BANG BANG BANG

"Clear!"

In the hands of these Hussars are the weapons without a formal designation. Referred as the Beryl, this is not exactly the most ergonomic, but it's nonetheless a very reliable rifle built on a robust, proven platform. It was the standard issue of the former Kawagrzmotian Land Forces before the state's reunification was formalized.



"Goddamn, I'll miss this rifle once I get out of the army..."

As good as it was, the need for a new, better rifle is still clear as days with the unit being in the process of replacing the Alexandrova platform rifle with a newly designed one, again from their home state of Kawagrzmotia.

The Kawagrzmotian 'Hussar' would then exits the room leaving the dead body of the Hendrolisan 18th century soldier alone. He then makes his way out of the building where he regroup with the rest of the squad as well as the entire platoon.

"So what's up?" a fellow approached him.

"Oh, nothing much, just smoked soldiers of the last 3 centuries with nothing more than a musket" replied the fellow Kawagrzmotian, to which he chuckled.

"Same here bud, quite funny they keep fighting even if we shown them"

The 2 soldiers laughed before the platoon commander brought their and the rest of the platoon's attention.

"Alright listen up, we are the first one to clear out our assigned area. Because of this, HICOM sent out an order that we must move onto the next objective and that is to clear out the outside and prepare from there. So let us waste no time shall we?"

The commander would then get a reply from his subordinates: "Sir, yes sir!"

The Kawagrzmotian Hussars platoon would then move on to where they needed, to prepare for the final assault.

...

"Hey, you heard the news?" asked a Mariner.

"What?" replied the other one in front.

"The 125th got here first and is now moving towards the castle"

"No way, really? Damn those Kawagrzmotians are fast!"

"Quit talking, they could hear us over here..." whispered the squad leader. During the entire conversation, the squad would be stacked up on two sides of the walls surrounding the door. The SL would then tap on the shoulder of the pointsman, armed with a shotgun, sending a signal to kick into the building.

The pointsman then positioned himself in front of the door just a few feet away. He then proceeds to kick on the door, forcing it open after experiencing such a sudden, powerful force. A musketeer was in sight right in front of him, and just about the 18th century man tries to get his weapon on him, 12 gauge would put an end to him.

The rest of the squad moved into the buildings, firing shots after shots, clearing corners on left and right all at the same time. Not even half a minute later, the first room is cleared of the enemies, who either got gunned down or surrendered, although only one of the latter case happened.

"Andal, Natvik stay here! Rest on me!" shouted the leader as the Marinesoldater that is not Andal or Natvik grouped up on SL, following him to the next room. As he is about to make his entrance, a soldier appeared in front of the doorway from the left.

"Contact!"

The SL pulled the trigger and shot the guy dead, collapsing on the ground in a matter of a second. Once he passed the doorway, he immediately turned right with one following behind turning left. Both of these soldiers fired upon seeing at least one enemy soldiers, who stood no chance against the semi-automatic bullpup rifle.

"Clear!" his rifleman assured.

"Clear!" confirmed back one other.

Upon having 2 of the rooms cleaned, the squad, without the two named prior, those guys stay to provide security among other things, move onto the staircase. He'd lead the bunched up squad in line as they made their steps up, pointing his rifle in front of him while the others cover the side, back and up to the second floor.

Another of these 18th century soldiers would rush up to the Mariner's position, but unfortunately for them, they didn't make it that far as they were shot dead the moment they popped up from the stair railing. Upon arriving at the 2nd floor, the SL turned his rifle to the left and began shooting anyone he sees, his squadmates would later join in the fight as they climb up the stairs.

They'd storm the rooms that this floor hosts and would at least incapacitate the occupiers at a fast pace. And although some managed to let off a shot of the black powder at the green, it didn't help much as their vests would absord the balls entirely, the only bad thing it'd bestow on them is, and I quote:

"AH! It fucking hurts! Damn it!"

Turns out it doesn't quite absorb all the sheer impact of the balls... Nevertheless, soon enough, the entirety of the second floor would no longer has even a bit of resisting KUGNE elements in around a minute, a record time for the lesser advanced forces.

"Clear...! Shit..."

All that's left of this building now is the blood-splattered wall, puddles of blood on the floor, bullet holes, frightened soldiers who gave up their arms awaiting to be taken away and a lot of dead bodies. This is also the last building the Overfaldsenheder had to clear out. A job all done well.

"Alright lads, we are to regroup at point Essence to prepare for an assault on the central castle. Let's move it!"

The squad leader and his soldiers would rush down the stairs to the first floor where the aforementioned 2 are waiting as the others would come and pick up those turning in themselves. When they reached outdoor, the 6-wheeled taxi ride is already there waiting for them, and it would't take long for them to board up the APC where they will be driven to the castle.

...

*This is what the cannon firing should sounds like inside