"We have reached an important point in our history where the end begins to come into view" Herm Mao in a speech to the imperial legions before their surrender.

Falmart. Herms command dugouts. January 5th. 666 imperial time.

Herm looked over at the map of the valley once again. He had to edit some spots on the map to mark the movements, defenses, and territorial losses.

They had retaken Emory hill but 52 of his men were killed in the process along with 200 more wounded. They however had killed 9 of the men in blue which had to count for something at least.

Hill Emory based on what reports told him was indefensible now. It had truly become a crater and they had caught the enemy off guard when they were burying the dead.

Still with the hill now having no strategic value the retaking of Emory seemed more like a minor if not hollow victory for his men. He sent runners to order a withdrawal bitterly.

With Emory having lost its strategic value he now had to predict where and when the enemy would strike. While it was impossible in his eyes to find out when they'd strike due to the speed of those carriages that ran circles around his defenses he believed an attack may fall on the increasingly isolated hill Molt which blocked the main entrance to the valley but if scouting reports proved true the enemy had apparently dug a trench networks in front of the hill itself to block off an escape from the main entrance to the valley.

Along with this they have largely been slowly surrounding the hill. Herm notes the fact that it's highly possible that the men in blue plan on fighting two separate battles at the same time. First they'll possibly attack one or two of the main hill formations surrounding his dugout and the medical center. Or they might simply attack hill Molt first to ensure fully that there is no escape from the valley.

Herm briefly toyed with the possibility of leading his entire army through the mountains in a breakout attempt but he was sure those metal birds would put an end to that.

Even if they made it past the mountains and Emory knows what enemy defenses he knew the metal birds would probably come down and destroy the last of his army. I'm short term it was over he and his army were doomed.

This left him two choices. Fight to the last man or surrender.

The answer was easy for Herm.

Surrender.

He had to do it to save his men. Other than blankets they had no winter gear and he had a hunch that the men in blue were more than capable of sieging them for possibly years in this valley until they all starved, froze, or died some other horrific way.

So it was better in Herm's mind to end it now than to drag it on and keep losing more of his men.

He headed out of the command dugout. The enemy has stopped pounding them with their beams of light. "Do we have any horses left" he asked a nearby legionary. "Yes sir we do." Said the legionary.

"Take me to one of the horses." Herm said as the legionary guided him to a spot near the dugout where they kept the few surviving horses.

"Inform the legions that we no longer go on, we are surrendering." He said sharply to the legionary. "Yes sir," he said, running back into the trenches.

Herm got on one of the horses and rode across the valley waving a white flag. He hoped that the men in blue would accept his surrender.

Falmart. Dien Bien Phu. 7 am. January 5th. 2 AEE.

Trang honestly wouldn't have believed it until one of the stealth drones operators showed it to him. The Imperials were swallowing their fucking pride and surrendering.

Out of all the things to happen today this wasn't what he expected. Either way he was pleasantly surprised since he would be able to get into position for the coup a couple days early and give his men a longer rest period before Clark's inevitable overthrow happened.

Trang was currently riding on an armored Humvee to go visit General Herm Mao. Based on what the UIU would find which was frankly a lot this was the last major imperial army really in action. With Maos surrender the war would really be over.

Well for he and his fellow GOIs he was sure there were some stubborn garrisons around the imperial countryside and other cities but the rebels would easily sweep them up now that they not only outnumbered them but had superior firepower thanks to the Aid package for the rebels Clark had pushed forward.

The rebels were a key part in the plan to break the empire originally by Clark but now with Clark about to be taken out of the picture he hoped that he could convince the engineer to make the rebels new state that they were creating act as a buffer or poxy state to counter JSDF influence in the region.

While the JSDF version of the hearts and minds program was seemingly going well according to UIU intelligence Trang doubted they would be able to amass the amount of support say a rebel group of slaves were since they would be able to connect more to the common people who have been oppressed by the imperialist scum and gather more support from specifically fellow slaves they free.

The JSDF was apparently a wild card in this whole Coup scenario since they voiced their support of it but whether they would send assistance not like he and his fellow comrades needed it, was yet to be seen.

The Humvee soon parked in front of a large open plain in the valley as a horse with General Herm Mao on it rode forward.

He still seemed to be holding the white flag he had earlier been seen waving Via the stealth drone footage.

Trang got out of the car and crossed his hands and waited for Herm to either dismount from his horse and speak to him or for him to stay on the horse and speak.

"I assume you're the commander of the men in blue." Said Herm. Trang had to admit he was impressed with how good Herm was in this situation. Herm had by surrendering left his army at Trangs mercy.

"Yea I am general Trang Minh of the Global Occult Coalition or the men in blue as your people call us." He said in a semi serious semi joking fashion.

"I General Herm Mao of the empire of Sadera surrender my remaining forces to you I can only beg you for fair treatment of my men." Herm said in a serious and calm tone.

"Your men will be treated fairly generally. We aren't like most kingdoms of Falmart as you can tell and as you see with better tech it means we have more than enough space and power to accommodate prisoners in fair and humane treatment." Said Trang in a relatively nice fashion.

Internally he knew he couldn't fully keep his word on the humane promise as long as the pentagram controlled the camps but he could slow Herm and his men's transfers to the camps for long enough that when they arrive the Coup will already be in place and their won't be much for the pentagram to do other than forced their resources on defending themselves and not their little experiments.

Or so he believed. Whether by delaying the transfer saved the last imperial army from the brutal fates in the camps he didn't really care though.

"I'm glad you're willing to be merciful to my army." Said Herm as he snapped Trang out of his inner scheming and thoughts. "Oh it's no issue my friend, it's just simple honor and how my organization believes prisoners should be treated." Said Trang lying.

"Should I bring my army over now for the surrender or-." Herm was cut off by Trang. "We'll give you one day for you and your army to sorts itself out before you march to us as prisoners." Trang said calmly.

"Very well thank you." Said Herm riding back towards where Trang assumed his main base of operations was.

"Inform Clark and high command that the last major imperial army has surrendered. We have won the war." Said Trang to one of his men. "Yessir." Said one of his men as he got on the radio.

The war itself had lasted from December 25th-Jan 6th he added the extra day since they had given Herm the rest of the 5th to sort out his army for the official surrender either way the war had lasted for around 11 or so days.

In just 11 days they had crippled the empire though the GOC and their fellow GOIs had lost 273 personnel and men in the war though it was easily dwarfed by the supposed 90,000 personnel the empire had lost though he was sure that number was inaccurate since they most likely suffered a little less if not more in this whole 11 day war.

While he and his organization's war with the empire was over he doubted the rebels were done yet and even when Clark was removed he doubted the Engineer wanted to stop funding and supplying the rebels with outdated weapons.

Either way, the war was now officially over.

This was a short chapter yes but expect longer chapters my readers.