0522 May 14th, 2020 CE

0541 Sun 44th, 196 AE

Somewhere in the Elven Nation

Aegord had a grim look on his face as he gave an oral report to Tarron. “It’s absolute chaos out there. We are still able to communicate with some of our units but we are just getting panicked reports from them. From what we could gather, we have lost a majority of our bases and our navy has mostly been sunk. We tried directly calling the airbases, naval bases, and army bases but most of them were unresponsive. However, the aircraft and ground units we have sheltered inside mountains have been untouched. Other than a few other units, the ones in the mountains are the only ones that haven’t been attacked.”

Tarron scratched his forehead while keeping his eyes shut. “How did these humans know where to attack? Spies would make sense but they seem to know the location of everything. Even with spies, that would be impossible. Aerial reconnaissance would be improbable. We kept up a constant aerial patrol. Not a single scout plane should have been able to get through.”

Aegord shook his head. “I’m not sure, sir.”

“How about the defenses we have set up?”

“We also tried contacting those positions. Most were unresponsive but we got a few responses from survivors. We can conclude that most of them have been destroyed or heavily damaged.”

Tarron tapped his desk and looked up at Aegord. “Operation Continued Arrow has started, correct?”

“It’s well underway.”

Sylfebel, Elven Nation

The sun had almost risen to the midway point. An elven officer stood on a hastily erected stand made out of crates. “The humans have launched a surprise attack and snuck onto our shores! Most of our army is currently winning the war in the human homeland and is unable to return. It is time to serve your duty for your nation! It is time to destroy these inferiors who dare tread on our land! All able-bodied male veterans please line up first!”

Murmurs of suspicion arose from the crowd. For the past few hours, they had seen strange aircraft flying over the sky. Nonetheless, no one argued.

Male veterans started lining up. Elven soldiers handed out rifles, pistols, machine guns, explosives, grenades, and portable anti-magipanzers. After they received their weapons, the officer spoke again to the veterans. “We also have a few thauguns. They are linked up to trucks outside of the town. Okay. Now. All able-bodied males!”

They were given everything that the veterans got except for the PAMs.

“All able-bodied female veterans!”

They were just given rifles, pistols, and grenades.

“All able-bodied females!”

They were handed rifles and pistols.

“For those with our new anti-magipanzer weapon,” said the officer as he raised the PAM. “We will have a demonstration on the field over there as to how to use them.”

The officer walked the male veterans to an open field. He coughed to bring the attention of everyone. “This triangle cone on top of this tube is a rocket filled with magic particles set to explode. You just have to press this button under the tube to fire it. There is an iron sight on it to help you aim. These are to be used against any sort of vehicle and are not reusable. Fire them once and they can’t be reloaded.”

The officer aimed the PAM and pressed the button under the tube. The rocket shot out and exploded a few hundred feet away.

Orva Caelora Human Concentration Camp, Elven Nation

Damon conversed with Pablo in what used to be a guardhouse. “Our job is to guard these people at all costs. We were given two options. Wait until our main force arrives or advance towards where the main force will be coming from. We will get air support via any nearby air units. Personally, I think the forest option is better.”

Pablo considered it for a second. “Either way, we have an issue. With this amount of people in addition to the elves, I don’t think we have the supplies to feed this many people.”

“Good point.” Damon nodded at Pablo’s analysis. “Good thing is is that the concentration camp here does have a lot of food. However, we don’t really have the ability to bring it with us. There are trucks and cars here but it’s gonna be hard traveling down the road hiding this many people.”

“Hm. It seems like we are staying.”

Damon opened the door and looked outside. “Seems that way. We are going to be here for some days.”

Outside, their men ran around erecting a few defenses. Using shovels, they dug a trench at the front gate.

0644 May 14th, 2020 CE

0622 Sun 44th, 196 AE

A couple miles from the shores of the Elven Nation

Nick pulled down his hatch and looked at his crew. “Ok boys, we are hitting the beaches soon. The Air Force has been doing some bombing so I don’t expect resistance to be heavy.”

AH-1Z Vipers took off from the deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard and other amphibious assault ships. On the beach, smoke billowed from the destroyed fortifications. In one of the Vipers, a pilot spoke into his headphones.

<<<“We got targets onshore. Anti-tank guns, infantry, and a couple of tanks.”

“You are clear to fire.”>>>

The 20 mm M197 three-barreled rotary cannon that was on the front belly of the helicopter started spinning. Bullets soon spewed out onto the beach. Hydra 70 rockets flew out of the launchers on the side of the Viper. Explosions blanketed the area. An anti-tank gun position exploded. On the ground, Elves ran around like ants.

Nick felt his tank jolt as the LCAC he was on crashed into the sea. Uma looked up from his driver seat at Nick. “How many of these amphibious assaults have we done?

“Two.”

Uma scratched his head. “I thought we did three?”

Nick waved him off. “I don’t quite remember. Anywhere between two to four. More than we need.”

A few minutes later

The LCAC that Nick’s Abrams was in hit the beach and quickly deflated. The front gate opened down right as Uma put the pedal to the metal.

A vein popped on Nick’s head as the tank sped onto the sand. “Connolly! Goddamit! You nearly rammed us into the fucking LCAC.”

Above them, the AH-1Z Vipers, out of ammo, banked and turned back towards the large group of amphibious assault ships that were just offshore.

Besides them, another LCAC came ashore and disgorged two M1A1s. On the M1A1’s sides, AAVs came ashore. Bullets pinged off of the AAVs. Shots came from the stone rubble of fortifications. From the little turret of the AAVs, the Mk19 40 mm automatic grenade launchers and the .50 cal machine guns opened up at the rubble.

Nick shouted at Dillian. “We got enemy infantry direct front. Open up with the machine guns.”

“Switching to thermals.”

The red-orange heat given off by the elves could be seen in the camera feed that Dillian was looking through. The machine guns on Nick’s Abrams opened up on the elves hiding behind the rubble.

Under the cover of fire, marines rushed out from the open back doors of the AAVs. They positioned themselves behind the armored vehicles and started firing. The fire from the elves slackened as bullets poured down on them.

A tank shell exploded on the cheek of Nick’s Abrams. A Knight had peeked out from a small hill.

Nick shouted again at Dillian. “Tank 1 o’clock!”

“Firing!”

The round went right into the turret of the Knight. In a flash, the Knight’s turret exploded and was flung into the sky.

“Advance!”

Their Abrams whirred to life and started moving forwards. Behind them, MV-22 Osprey landed onto the beachhead and more marines ran out. Small arms fire from the elves peppered the advancing armored vehicles.

The AH-1Zs sped past overhead and headed deeper into land. They began clearing the way for the advancing ground forces.

Marines moved up to the rubble and took cover behind them. The supporting M1A1s and AAVs gunned down any nearby elves that appeared or started shooting.

Sergeant Finn Johnson, sitting behind a piece of rubble, looked over his shoulder. Bullets from a machine gun whizzed past him. The rest of his squad was crouched with him. Finn nodded his head over the rubble. “Got a machine gunner there. Blake, give me suppressing fire. I’m gonna throw a grenade over.”

“Got it, sir.”

Private Blake York peeked out from the other side of the rubble and opened up with his M4 rifle. Finn stood up and tossed a grenade over where the machine gun fire had come from. He quickly ducked back down and Blake returned to cover. An explosion came from where he chucked the grenade and with that, the hail of bullets stopped. However, singular bullets still whizzed by.

“Machine gunner down but we got some rifle fire.”

A fusillade of machine-gun fire was heard. An M1A1 had opened up with its machine guns on the elves that were firing on them. The rest of Finn’s platoon peeked out of cover and started firing.

It wasn’t long before Nick’s Abrams was off the sand and onto the dirt. Something pinged off the sloped front of the tank.

“Anti-tank gun. 11 o’clock!”

An anti-tank gun was sitting in a dug-out position just to the left of them. It had sandbags surrounding it. Near it was multiple already destroyed anti-tank guns.

“Firing!”

The high explosive slammed into the anti-tank gun just as its crew reloaded. The gun exploded and its crew was vaporized in the combined blast.

Port City of Ilysesari, Elven Nation

Ara sat down. In the room were the current commanding officers of the army units in Ilysesari. They were all survivors of the failed invasion. Usually, this divisional meeting would be a meeting of Major Generals and Lieutenant Generals but some of the elves ranked as low as captain were also participating. Captain Feno Dagolor, current commander of what’s left of the 7th Infantry Division started the meeting. “The naval base. It’s completely gone.”

Colonel Giullis Keaynore, commander of what’s left of the 21st Magipanzer Division, dishearteningly commented, “You saw the planes right?”

Femo nodded. “They are the exact same ones as those that attacked us in the Empire.”

“The humans are already here.”

“High Command is gone. We can’t reach them.”

Ara sighed and interjected. “They are doing the same thing.”

Giullis looked at her questionably. “What do you mean?”

“Their basic strategy is to cut off the head and let the body writhe in confusion. We experienced that when they destroyed our bases in the Empire. Have we received any exact orders or reports?”

“We did receive some panicked messages. We know that this is occurring across the country. The humans are bombing everything. Nothing is clear yet though.”

Ara nodded. “I suggest we retreat.”

Lieutenant General Ailred Farrah, commander of the 34th Infantry Division and one of the few higher ranked in the meeting, disagreed. “Isn’t it better if we fortify our position?”

Ara looked down at the map that was on the table. She pointed to the mountain range that divided the south from the north. “This is the best place to set up a defense.”

Ailred scoffed. “We are all the way on the southern tip and you are expecting us to move hundreds of miles across land that's under attack by the human aircraft?”

Ara shook her head. “We will not move as one. We will move in multiple small groups. The humans would most likely attack large numbers of units setting up defenses than small numbers retreating.”

“How are you certain?”

“I’m not. I’m betting on it. It’s our only real chance of putting up a fight. You experienced what happened when we tried to defend cities against these humans.”