Dien Bien Phu would be the final showdown between the imperial army and the GOIs. While the imperial army would salvage some honor, it was the final nail in the coffin for the nobility and army of Sadera.

"I reached for my helmet. I found a piece of sharpnel embedded in it." An imperial legionary at Dien Bien Phu.

https://youtu.be/8S1KsRZD-RM

Vietnamese theme for the battle.

Falmart. Dien Bien Phu. 3 pm. January 3rd. 2 AEE.

Trang watched as his artillery opened up on the looting imperials. The shells crashed into the Valley.

He watched in his binoculars as the looting legionaries and the ones outside the town setting camp ran around the valley like ants trying to avoid the shells. Thousands died within an instance; it was a massacre no other words would describe.

The imperials one saving grace was the fact the valley had a plethora of hills dotting it and smaller mountains. Imperials ducked behind these hills or laid flat on thief stomach hoping not to get blow kingdom come.

He could spot the outline of Zorzal hiding behind a hill and yelling at some poor legionary as artillery pounded the valley.

This went on for around 4 hours non stop.

"Ok halt the bombardment we don't want to utterly destroy them we still need Zorzal to fuck up a bit." He joked on the radio as the artillery batteries ceased their Bombardment creating an eerie silence. One of the hills in the valley had a massive crater in it while shell holes littered the valley.

The Bombardment had been so intense he would later learn that some imperial troops were just completely vaporized. An estimated well rough estimate because of the unknown amount of soldiers vaporized, 13,000 dead imperials or what remained of them lay littered throughout the valley.

This of course reduced their numbers greatly. He watched as the dazed imperials got out of their cover. Some were breaking down by the looks of things and others just dazed out in a 1000 yard stare.

He may have felt bad for them had he not remembered that the imperial army was just a bunch of rapists. It was less of fighting and army and more to fighting just a bunch of criminals in his eyes.

"I say it's time we give the warrior bunnies their proper revenge against the imperials. Deploy the bloodhounds. They aren't allowed to target Zorzal since we need him alive so we can capture after the battle for propaganda of course." He said on the radio.

(Code name for some 120 warrior bunnies both male and female who were trained by the pentagram and the UIU to conduct terror operations. They were responsible for the liberation of slaves prior to the uprising and a series of bombings targeting civilians in vassal states to scare them into rebellion in operation Buko haram.)

"Sounds good sir should they just go for kills in the night raid or kidnappings." Asked the operator on the radio. "Both and they can also do revenge rape and torture on the imperials." Trang said, smirking.

"Understood sir." Said the operator.

"I certainly feel like General Giap at Dien Bien Phu. Of course our enemies are now wanna be magical Roman's instead of the French." Trang joked to himself as he watched the valley some more from his binoculars and thought it was getting rather dark.

He started hearing the screams of the wounded imperials and it was like music to his ears.

Soon enough it wouldn't be the wounded screaming.

Falmart. Dien Bien Phu. 3:23 pm. January 3rd. 666 imperial calendar.

Lights from the gods themselves rained on the battlefield.

Longus watched as some of his comrades simply disappeared off the face of Falmart.

One Demi human mage. An absolute saint walked across the hellscape healing men with missing limbs or screaming in pain from metal stuck to their body parts. She did this with no fear or at least it looked like it.

She must have been blessed by the gods as not a single one of those light things falling from the sky and making a screeching noise hit her. He was grabbed by one of his comrades who threw him behind a hill before he disappeared like the others when directly hit by those things.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Was all he heard his ears were starting to bleed from all the noise. He heard men pray for their gods before being converted into bloody chunks.

The gods had sent them to die hadn't they. Did no one care for their lives. We're the prince in all of this. Oh there he was running for his life terrified and not leading them. Coward. To think general Herm ever trusted him.

Herm, while arrogant, was surprisingly not running; he was walking across the hail storm picking up wounded men and joking that it was just a small rain storm as the lights came crashing down around him.

Hours, maybe days, went by. I couldn't tell the time he just heard. Boom! Boom! Boom!

When will it end? Are we cursed was the last thing he heard before he heard a loud Boom and was flung across the hill and came tumbling down somewhere.

He coughed blood before he saw the mage see him and healing him as he passed out.

He woke up again in a tent of sorts; the mage was healing him still. To him she may as well have been an angel. Sure she may have been a Demi human but that didn't matter at the moment she had saved him and he was eternally in her debt.

"Looks like you're all better now." She said smiling as she finished healing him. "Thank you I'm in your debt." Longus said coughing weakly. "No you Don't have to be I was just doing-." She said before he cut her off.

"Yes I am. I'll take you out dancing after this." He said as she blushed.

"Smooth." Joked one wounded legionary's next to him as the mage left.

"Oh shut up." He said.

Falmart. Herm Moas command tent. 10:35 pm. January 3rd. 666 imperial time.

"Any news on the prince." Herm asked a guard as he bandaged his head. Herm had some pieces of shrapnel from the bombardment stuck in his head from his daring move of walking around the hellscape raising the morale of the army.

"No sir he is missing from the field." Said a wounded legionnaire as he limped into the room holding on to a staff to keep himself balance as he had no leg.

"Very well send out search parties to search for him but if he doesn't appear in the next 5 hours consider him dead." Herm said. "Yes sir," the legionary responded before limping out of the hastily constructed command tent.

Herm had already suspected he was encircled and all because of Zorzals foolishness to lead the army on a looting spree across the town. They were supposed to March through the town and towards the warrior bunny capital.

Analyzing a map of the valley he came up with a defensive plan. Earthworks, redoubts, and trenches would be set up in the northwestern code named Pina, eastern codename Diablo, and southern hills code named Formal. There were also 2 large and 1 small hill dotting the valleys.

One of the large ones was by the main entrance of the valley, the southern pass which he would turn into a heavily defended outpost code named Molt after the emperor. Another one was by some forested area in the northeast wing of the valley. This hill was the highest of the 3 so he would position his remaining siege catapults and ballistas to act as counter batteries for the enemy's artillery and fire down on any attacking force. He named it Isabelle (Historical fact: this was the code name given to one of the hills the French defended at Dien Bien Phu.) after his mistress. Finally the small hill located by the small nacktong creek which flowed out of the valley also served as another entrance into the valley which he named Emory after the god of war. This hill he would fortify with some of his best warriors.

Another thing was that he noticed that the enemy used ranger weapons so he ordered that his men construct their own crossbows and bow and arrows since trying to melee them would be pointless until they stormed their trenches themselves.

Another thing. While the organization's horseless carriages seemed invincible they weren't. Carriages have wheels. Knock out the wheels and it can't move. He ordered the mages for when they would end up fighting the carriages to aim for the parts of the carriages that looked like wheels.

Herm began to hear the screams of the wounded still out in the valley as they got attacked by some unknown force. There was nothing they could do to them.

While Herm dreamed of an imperial victory in this valley knew it was impossible.

The best they could do was fight until they could no longer and yield the field.

Accepting defeat not as pathetic sour losers but as honorable men who did the best they could.

Falmart.Trenches and earthworks at hill Isabelle. 12:45 am. January 4th. 666 imperial time.

Gladius sat in one of the many trenches and redoubts that had sprung up on the hill. It was very chilly and he could see his breath as he wrapped himself with a blanket. One poor guy had frozen to death overnight. Snow began to fall as it covered the Valley once more.

Most of the snow has been melted by the pure heat coming from those beams of light that had slammed into the valley but now it was slowly starting to cover the valley once more.

The mountains were the only ones who had been spared the bombardment but that was probably because whatever had caused the sun to rain down on them was up there.

He took a peek out of the trench he was in and was brought down by one of his comrades before a loud bang was heard. "What are you doing idiot, keep your head down or the bang, bamg things will get you." Said his fellow legionary angrily.

"Sorry." He said meekly. "Better not do that again we need every legionary we can for this battle." The legionary said still pissed off. "Do you think they'll be able to hit us with their light beams" Gladius asked.

"Nonsense my boy." Said a voice behind them causing him and the other legionaries in the trench with him.

It was the Legate in-charge of the defense of the hill. "I assure not one of their beams will be able to hit us or the catapults and even if they do remember to stay in your trenches and earthworks." Said the legate confidently.

"I hope you're right sir." Said Gladius.

"I am right legionary." Said the Legate sharply. "Plus I promised General Herm that we would hold this hill at all costs." The legate said before heading deeper into the trench system.

For a good 30 minutes he sat with his comrades in the cold with nothing to do until a screeching noise above them was heard. One of those metal birds must have been flying above the trench systems as egg things were dropped from the sky and began to pepper the valley causing massive explosions.

He laid flat with his fellow legionaries as explosions caused a part of the trench to collapse burying some men alive.

Then silence. Then a legionary screamed. "Here they come!" He got up and peeked his head out of the trench and saw 5 horseless carriages and hundreds of men in blue uniforms charging forward in the night.

He drew his bow and let loose an arrow. It bounced off one of their helmets. Soon he and his comrades were loosing arrow after arrow at them killing one or two at best but wounding more of them.

The 5 horseless carriages aimed their weird trunks at their damaged earthworks and trenches and fired a beam of light directly at them. A massive explosion rang out as a dozen men were splattered and wooden pieces from the earthworks went flying giving men horrible splinters.

He grabbed a crossbow from his dead comrade as it provided him with better aim and he actually killed one of them with an arrow to the face. One of mages in the trenches with them formed a rocky and dirt filled blonder, aimed it at what he would assume were the wheels of the carriage and let it fly at it.

It was a hit and one of the carriages was stopped dead. It didn't matter though there were still four more and they and the attackers were upon them soon.

The men in blue stormed the trenches killing off legionaries with their black rods he tried to slash at one and failed. He was hit by the black rod and stumbled back.

He was almost hit hadn't it been for a legionary hidden in a small dugout they'd jumped out and stabbed the man in blue was stabbed and screamed in pain. He took the chance to run.

He ran across the earthworks as they were being overrun. He soon found the legate by his command dugout with his sword out.

"I am completely dishonored. I promised general Herm that the hill would not fall and that they couldn't hit our catapults. I was wrong. We are doomed. I am leaving."

The legate then plunged his sword into his heart and thus committing suicide.

Gladius took a while to process what he had just witnessed before jumping out of the trenches and running down the opposite side of the hill towards the main defenses at Emory.

Falmart. Hill Isabelle. 1:57 am. January 4th. 2 AEE.

Captain Dung Chi tapped the body of a dead legionary's with his STV assault rifle. Good riddance had the imperials given them quite the trouble in the battle for this hill.

He has lost 3 men out of the 50 in his company not a lot yes but the imperial resistance had been heavier than expected. So far in total the assault had cost him and the other 4 companies assaulting the hill 11 men killed and 16 wounded. Also one tank had one of its treads knocked out by the bastards. Still they had killed 125 of the defenders and captured another 349 but most had escaped much to his disappointment.

Either way the same fate awaited them. A trip to the camps. Rumors had already spread of what the pentagram did to the prisoners. Camp Florence was the worst of them with apparently an average of 50 of the POWs dying per day.

Still the rapist and murderers deserved it so he couldn't pity them too much. As long as this didn't turn into a massive genocide on the people of the empire themselves the legionaries and nobility could rot in those camps for all he cared.

He was personally impressed with how fast the Saderans had built this defensive trench and earthwork system.

Still it was a sign of desperation.

Another 48 hours longest and the battle would be over.