Chapter 5 – The Battle of Devera (Part 1)

The Albion Army was moving in, 2 million strong.

They were marching to battle, ready to fight another glorious campaign.

They had driven out Tristian and they had been numbering at a force of at least a few million, and while they had cheated a bit to win, they had won nonetheless, and now they were facing off against a rebel force now, consisting of only 500,00 against their 2 million.

The mage forces were smirking beneath their helmets, and the commoner units were ready to fight.

They believed in all accounts that they would easily run through the enemy as though they were not there.

They were in for a battle greater than any other.

They approached Devera Valley and entered.

"Those guys are such idiots," Louise heard a Phantom say as she was near one of the machine gun nests overlooking the cliff.

"Yeah, their marching out in broad daylight, you'd have to be blind as a bat to miss them," said another.

"Shut it and focus, the battles going to get started soon," said a final soldier.

Louise was with Sato, Kirche behind her, and Tabitha was with them, though she was wearing a bulletproof Kevlar vest, which can take a fair amount of damage, Louise and Kirche refused to wear them.

Henrietta watched from a hill at the marching Albion army, seeing a sea of black and blue uniforms, and dark blue armor, all of them were marching, horses were carrying the leaders, and the mages had their staves out and ready.

Then Keeper walked out, and then all the soldiers readied their weapons, several arming their RPGS, and then the Sentry guns lights started to pulse, showing that they were on Proximity alert, sensing the heat sources of any enemies in a fifty meter radius.

The Artillery unit was ready, the artillery squads ready, and on the hills, long ranged snipers were aiming at the officers, their targets picked out, the tanks were ready to roll forth, along with at least one hundred personnel, all with RPG's, Assault Rifles and machine guns.

The Sanka's were preparing for takeoff, and soon all eight were airborne, and they carried four bombs each, a total of 32 bombs.

Keeper then pulled out a gun of his own as the Albion army was getting near the front.

"All soldiers give 'em hell," whispered Keeper.

Then he pulled the trigger on the flare gun, and as the flare went up ….

… the battle begun.

The Albion forces were walking along to the area of battle, when suddenly they saw the light shoot up into the air, and then it flashed brilliantly for all to see, the commander smirked.

"They've given away their position, all troops char-!"

BLAM

A bullet blew the commanders brains out before he could even give the order, and then more bullets started to rain down and all of them were aimed at the mage officers, the shots drilling through their brains, and then out over 350,000 officers, 1,750 had been killed by the long range snipers in the first few minutes, and the troops started to panic.

Then they heard a far away booming sound, may booms, and they wondered what it was, until a sharp whistling came from the sky, and …..

KABOOM, KABLAM, KER-BLAM!

Louise had to turn away, Kirche was now behind the sandbag defenses peeking out, while Tabitha had a book out, but peeked out of it to watch the carnage.

The artillery shells slammed into the Albion forces, the powerful 150 mm shells tore the tightly packed clusters of knights and noble to pieces, many were blasted apart, many burnt away, and many were hit directly and vaporized.

The shells hit across the whole army, some landed at the very end of the valley where the Albion army was packed the most, and also when they hit the gun powder carriages, the explosions were amplified and the death toll rose.

Then Louise looked to the sky, and saw the eight Sanka's, and then noticed several squadrons of dragon knights incoming, and soon a battle in the sky began, 8 Sanka's versus 370 dragon knights.

The Sankas easily tore into the dragons, the 20 mm cannons were armed to the fullest, and only five shots were needed to actually kill a dragon, and soon dragon knights started to fall from the sky, many landing onto the Albion forces, crushing them.

Then three Sanka's used the opportunity to drop their bombs, and they had to use dive bombing to attack, though they did not complain much, and they did not really need to dive as it was impossible for them to miss the massive force, but their targets were the Albion Armies guns and golems.

One Sanka targeted a tight cluster of cannons, the crews standing around them ready to prepare the weapons, but the Sanka targeted the large concentrations and released the bombs, and the impact blasted apart a large amount of guns, and set off the gunpowder needed for the weapons, adding to the destruction.

The second Sanka saw a large force of incoming golems, all wielding large clubs, but the pilot then released his payload, and the bombs easily decimated the Golem forces, and killed countless Earth mages.

The final fighter flew over the entrance to the valley and then released its payload, the bombs exploded onto the tightly packed force, and killed so many thousands of enemies in only one strike.

Then the planes flew back, all the while they fired their guns straight into the Albion forces, firing until they had exhausted all their ammunition, but left lines of death in the Albion Army.

The forces were being shelled and blasted, but the ones at the front soon decided that enough was enough, and then they charged.

A bad mistake

Saito could only watch as the Albion forces were violently torn to pieces by Artillery and the Sanka fighter-bombers, dragon bodies rained from the sky, and the dark expanse of the Albion Army was soon dotted with blots of red.

"Partner, is this how war is fought where you are from," Derflinger said, then gave what seemed to be a bit of a wince gesture as 150 mm shell flew over their heads to smash into the Albion forces, killing over 57 knights.

"No, the enemy would have the same weapons as well, and both sides would be attacking from areas where there was cover, and not in head on attacks, and you will soon see why," Saito said, Louise had heard what he said, and then they saw the charging mass of Albion forces incoming, swords and pikes out, all of them with the will to kill.

Then the Phantom soldiers got up, weapons in hand, the machine gunners readied their weapons, and several RPG firers had their launchers ready.

Louise was scared, seeing how the Albion forces were being so easily torn apart, how the Nobles she once thought were superior to commoners were being so easily destroyed, but now they were coming, and she was on the opposing side.

She now hopped that they would win, had told her original viewpoint to go screw itself, because even if she had noble pride, she did not want to die, Saito having already hammered it home about how pride meant nothing when one was dead.

Then she saw as Saito aimed his rifle, and though he had learned from Colbert that killing was wrong, the only way that any of them would survive was to kill the enemy, who were dead set on ending their lives, and he would do it, for his friends, for his new comrades …

… for Louise.

Then as the Sentry Guns registered the enemy, the blinking lights turned full red and the guns spooled up, the order was sent over the whole line, and the order was:

"OPEN FIRE"

The whole Albion army had charged forth, expecting to meet the enemy face to face, and kill them like the dogs they were.

Then one went down, then another, and another and another, until suddenly bullets erupted from the Phantom line, and the bullets instantly ripped apart the Albion army waves, sun hundreds if not thousands of soldiers were dying by the second, a rainstorm of bullets hit the Albion, the rounds tore through the bodies of the enemy in large amounts, some killed by the same bullet.

Saito was shooting blindly, even though he could still feel the power of Gandalfr in him somehow, and was using the gun well enough for a regular soldier, he was now simply firing at random because of his hesitation brought on by the death of Colbert, but even then, the enemy was so packed together that it was impossible not to miss.

"ALL LAUNCHERS, FIRE"

The RPG launchers soon rushed up, and aimed their RPG weapons at the incoming wave of Albion forces, and then fired, the compressed fuel in the launchers, made from the fuel in the RPG-7's, propelled the rockets.

The powerful missiles struck the Albion lines, each with explosive power rivaling the Artillery, the whole front of the line was utterly eviscerated, and a large amount of Albion forces were wiped out in an instant, the death toll among the Albion forces only kept rising, especially when a Sanka came back and dropped its bomb load right onto the inlet, killing almost a few thousand of the enemy in that one attack.

Louise was in shaking hard, her ears were throbbing in pain as her eardrums were assaulted by the intense pounding of Assault Rifles and Heavy Weapons fire, as well as the screams of pain and dying as the Albion Army was brutally eviscerated by the weapons of Phantom Guard, Louise felt her ideals of the superiority of mages, which had received a shattering blow from what she learned of the church, was starting to crumble apart as wave after wave of Albion nobles was ripped apart by a commoner army.

One that kept on firing at the charging wave of mages and knights, heavy fire tore into their forces, and heavy artillery shells smashed into them.

Then a large fireball hit the frontline, fired from a square class fire mage before he died from a burst of fire from a Sentry Gun, and the Phantom Guard soldiers were burnt in a most awful way, Louise seeing as several of them were killed outright, many others were injured, then what she saw next shocked her.

The wounded were haphazardly patched up a bit, but were not sent back, instead they ignored their injuries, picked up their weapons which had survived the attack and then fired back, all with fire in their eyes, and they continued to attack the Albion forces, who were no in range to attack.

On a cliff-face, Matilda (Longueville's real name) watched as the battle continued on, and was more or less shocked (and a bit terrified) by it all.

The Albion forces were being eviscerated, the death toll continuing to rise, but now magic attacks were hitting the Phantom lines, and now Phantom Guard was taking casualties, but the Albion Army was losing more men, and the number continued to fall.

Then Matilda looked to the horizon to see as a second river of black was coming in, a force of 1.5 million soldiers, and the only other military force that the monarchy could supply, but then she saw as another artillery strike slammed into the end of the Albion line, where the last soldiers were.

She felt sick, seeing bodies of countless Albion soldiers, many in huge piles, others torn to pieces, and very large amounts of dust and ash.

Matilda was now glad she had left, because if she had joined the attack, she would have been part of the massacre, another idiot mage that could have died in any number of gruesome method, and was happy to be alive at the moment.

Then she saw as three of the mysterious metal dragons which were similar to the Dragons Raiment flew overhead, and then saw as they unleashed their bombs at the end of the formation, as another heavy volley of artillery tore into the Albion army, wiping out a very large portion of the advance, while the strange bombs exploded in tremendous blasts, literally wiping out the entire rear of the advancing Albion Army.

Now the Albion forces were starting to drop, and at the start the number had been at almost 2 million, now it looked significantly less than that, but saw as their soldiers were now tearing into the Phantom frontline, and then saw as they ran up the openings to the top of the cliff, but they still took enourmous losses, but now it was slowly turning into a melee brawl.

But Matilda started to realize that no matter how injured the Phantom soldiers got, they were still fighting on, and they were still holding the cliff.

HYAAA!

Saito cut down another Albion soldier, though only the arm, but the soldier was soon finished off by another Phantom soldier.

No it was becoming a brutal melee, the few Albion knights that remained were now on the cliff, and they attacked with great ferocity, but the Phantom soldiers fought back just as hard if not harder.

They used guns to attack the knights, but when it was to close, they used special knives known as Kukri knives, which were bent at an angle to block blades batter, and the Kukri knife easily tore through flesh and bone, and easily got into the spaces in the armor.

However, the battle was now close and personal.

The mages were made priority above all else, and now the musketeer squad was joining in, all armed with Phantom Guard rifles.

Agnes herself was cutting down multiple soldiers, using her sword, and only sparsely using the RAS-14, mostly because using a musket in its entirety did not sit well with her, she liked killing from close range, however she to late saw the fire mage behind her, and could only see her death and some regrets flash before her eyes, though not much of it did as the Mage's head was blown completely through, along with five more.

Agnes looked up to whoever had done it, and locked eyes with her savior, Guardian looking back, a deep and piercing gaze going straight into Agnes, but Agnes was somehow mesmerized by the dark blue eyes of the girl, whose gaze was firm and focused, and a face that looked whiter than snow, and the black hair beneath the hood that looked like silk, and als-.

Then Guardian aimed and fired, striking a knight that had gotten behind Agnes, and then Guardian fired five more times, instantly taking down the soldiers that threatened to skewer Agnes, and Agnes saw that the shots were all direct hits.

However, now the battle was starting to go bad, and Louise was cringing and scared as swords and guns took lives, soon the bodies of Phantom Guard soldiers and Albion knights and Nobles littered the ground, killed by magic, sword, and gun.

The battle was now going to take another turn.

"This is Keeper, send in the armor," Keeper said through the Cross-Com, and saw as the armored war machines of his world soon went forward, followed by the first tank ever made by Helkigania, the Mark 1, which bore a passing resemblance to the Earths first tank, except that it had a 150 mm cannon and was longer to accommodate it, as well as an open roof but and excellently armored front, and it looked more like a mobile artillery unit than a tank.

Now it would get its first taste of battle, even if only four of them existed.

Henrietta was looking over the battle, the carnage and death horrified her, seeing how an army of Albion forces were being brutally torn to pieces, and fighting back as though they were animals driven to frenzy.

Then she heard the deep rumble, and then saw as ten strange metal constructs on what looked like metal tracks were heading to the front, the first six were very advanced and obviously not of Helkagenian make, while the other four were belching smoke, and rather ugly machines, but also very intimidating and looked like they had been made recently.

Then one ground to a halt as a large amount of smoke came from it, and the ones who rode it immediately exited through the top, and then the strange thing suddenly was on fire, and then –

BOOOOMMMM

It exploded in a tremendous blast, its crew was luckily out of it before the explosion happened.

The others were almost to the front.

Saito heard it, a deep rumbling that chilled his spine.

The deep rumbling he heard during a single weapons festival he was at, the sound of the heavy armor he had seen, the king of the battlefield of his world.

Then a tree was literally pushed down into the ground, and he saw it.

"It's a tank," Saito yelled, seeing the main battle tank, the Schwarzkopf, though he knew the M1A3 Abrams, the tank he saw looked like it could eviscerate the M1.

The Albion forces were in shock at the sight of the armored war machines, and then they saw as the large cannon of the tank turned and was now pointed at them.

Then the tanks fired, and in a brief moment the shell tore through countless knights and mages before it hit the ground, blasting everyone in the blast radius to pieces, and then continue on, the .50 caliber machine guns were being operated by remote from within the tank, and they opened fire, controlled by the commander with a special system.

The Albion nobles were now retreating, as mages fired wind, water, rock and fire at the tanks, but wind simply went over and around the armor, water only made the tank wet and nothing more, rock broke to pieces against the tanks Ceramic armor, and fire was simply brushed off like it wasn't even there.

Louise was now outright cowering and Kirche had fear in her eyes at the war machine, however, Tabitha herself wore the look of intense interest and looked like she in deep thought, even as the tank fired a HEAT (High-Explosive Anti-Tank) round into the Albion forces, eviscerating a large number of them.

Then the Fastbacks showed up, and opened fire at the Albion line, their 30 mm cannon shots completely eviscerating the Albion line, and the vehicles were followed by three crude armored vehicles, which were, without a doubt in Saito's mind, Helkiganias first ever tank, built by Phantom Guard.

The armor continued on, running over and easily crushing the dead bodies, completely flattening them outright, a very terrifying and gruesome sight.

The fear Louise felt from seeing the monstrous metal armored weapons as they simply trudged through the enemy, all of the fire and shots hitting them probably comparable to a trying to break a brick wall down with stick.

The cannons of the two tanks fired, and the Albion forces were eviscerated by the attack, and the tanks took their position at the entrances, two fastbacks joined them while the Mark 1's went to the cliff, and fired their shells into the enemy.

The battle had turned, and the enemy was once again on the ropes, but now they were coming in all at once, a massive tidal wave was now coming in, ignoring the now lessened attacks of the Phantom Guard.

Then the Artillery came back, except that the shells were glowing, the shells seeming to brighten up the night sky, then the shells burst in mid-air over the Albion Army …

… and when they hit, the area was soon set on fire.

The Phosphorous shells burnt up the lines, the very potent fire made when white Phosphorous ignited was overwhelming, the weapon made to be a total area denial weapon, every area the shell hit was set alight, burning everything that it touched to cinders.

Louise desperately wanted to turn away, to not see as the Albion forces were burned to death, all of them on fire as their skin was turned to ash and their bodies slowly burnt away, but the flames from the white phosphorous had a strange and hypnotizing effect, and she simply could not look away, the Albion forces slowly burning away, the intense screams fading as they died.

Then the mountains on either side of the valley lit up, the next part of the plan had come into effect as the pre-prepared explosives detonated, an avalanche of rock and debris rushed down the mountain, and most of the Albion force was caught in the enormous rock slide, crushing practically the whole army, until finally the rock slide ended, and now much of the valley was filled with rock, boulders and rubble, along with the crushed bodies of countless Albion forces.

It was a rather horrifying sight.

A woman who was in the mountain slowly got up, her clothes were in tatters, her skin had countless burns and injuries, and her read hair had a streak of blood, an injury in her a skull when red-hot shrapnel from the explosives pierced her skull, and while it did not kill her, it did hit a rather important part of her brain, also her wand was gone.

"Hey, there's somebody here," a voice called out, and three people, one woman and two men in hoods, al Phantom Guard carrying RAS-3's.

"God she looks like hell, and that looks like a bad head injury," said one of the men.

"She must have gotten caught in one of the explosions, she will need heavy medical attention," said the final one.

With that, the mage once known as Matilda, was carried from the mountain, the injury in her had bandaged, but the damage was already done.

The Albion forces retreated, going back to their base camp.

Louise slowly walked out, looking at the once prestine valley, which was now a cratered, burned, bloodied and completely ravaged war-zone.

She could still hear the screams of anger, rage, terror, fear and pain, she could still see the death, the images of Knights and mages torn apart by machine gun fire, blasted to pieces by rockets and artillery, and burned to ashes by the Phosphorous shells, and those who were crushed instantly in the rock-slide.

She saw as the Commoners went up against the nobles, her teachings, everything that told her that nobles were invincible and would be superior to commoners no matter what, it all fell to pieces and then burned away, much like the bodies of the Albion soldiers as they burned away from the fire.

Keeper soon arrived, and they had managed to draw up an accurate assessment of the casualties.

Phantom Guard Casualties- 469 Dead-895 Wounded

Albion forces-1,362,976 Dead-543,899 Wounded

However, supplies were coming in, new Artillery shells, more machine guns, as well as two new Sankas, and 75 more bombs, along with a few tons of Ammunition for the weapons.

The Albion forces received another 1.8 million personnel, all of whom were ready for battle.

It would happen the next day, and all the while, Saito, Louise, Henrietta and Siesta were starting to experience symptoms of PTSD from what they had seen, while Tabitha still maintained her stoc personality, but seemed to shudder greatly many times.

Agnes herself was getting ready for the battle that was coming, but all the while, her thoughts drifted more to the woman who had saved her from death many times in the battle, whose actions, efficiency, figure – Agnes felt a hot blush creep up her face from that last part, and struggled to finish her preparations for the battle that was going to happen.