Almin, Birgen, and Thea sat in their troop transport alongside a large number of crates. Birgen polished his rifle to perfection, while Thea and Almin chatted idly. “Wow, that’s crazy. My family has been farmers for the entirety of living memory as well.” Almins usual detached and slightly sarcastic speech was directly at odds with the bubbly and outgoing Thea.
“I know, right? It’s almost like we were meant to work together!” “I suppose.” Thea sipped her thermos of tea-stamped with the spiral eye of the lords sigil and hummed. “Isn’t this interesting? Our first real war! The demons and orcs and goblins were small fry compared to the scuttlers and skitterers were about to fight, huh?” Of course, some shortform slang for the drones of the Iron Scourge had become common among the soldiery of Pechemvar.
“You shouldn’t be so confident; I’ve heard these things have been giving the legions trouble for decades now.” “Ah, who needs the legions when you have the Provincial Guard?” Birgen set his rifle down and spoke up. “I wouldn’t be so confident, lass. I’ve heard nasty things about 'em.”
Thea simply shrugged and started looking through one of the nearby crates.
“Ooh, canned veggies…”
————
Kyle was once again leading from the front. While the military bureaucracy had massively expanded both militarily and logistically since Kyle had established it, the army wasn’t large enough to justify more than one general.
The general plan was to punch towards the major stronghold and supply depot, dubbed Depot 01 and destroy any drones found there or along the way. Kyle’s troops would march along the main roads that led directly there and also crossed several smaller forts or depots.
The land of the Scourge was generally wilderness, populated with only three fixtures. The first were bastions in the ruins of old settlements of fallen kingdoms, as they were usually on strategic spots to begin with. The second were more forts and bunkers anywhere that was even remotely valuable, sprawling across the countryside. The third were resource gathering depots, anything from automated mines to arrays of crystals that gathered the mana that was so crucial to the Scourge.
Every drone in the Scourge needed mana to function. While they could pull in some ambient mana, it wasn’t enough, and arrays to gather it were needed. If they could knock out the arrays, eventually the Scourge would run out of mana.
At precisely 0800 hours, the army marched away from the city of Altrai and the Second War of Annihilation began.
———
The first order of business was to link up with the 77th and 98th Legions and march south to cut off a portion of the Scourge by meeting with the Maduwanian Royal Army halfway there. After only an hour of marching south, the vanguards of the two forces made contact with one another.
Before the end of the day, Kyle met with the Cagliar of the Unified First Army. He was a tall and bald man, competent and tactical to an exacting degree.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
In the command tent between the armies, they met on the first night. As Kyle walked under the tent flap, the Cagliar and his advisors greeted him. “Hail and well met there, friend. We look forward to a successful campaign with you.” Kyle responded. “Likewise. I’m afraid I’m unaware of your name and title, if you would be so kind as to enlighten me?” “Ah. I’m Cagliar Sistertine, of the 77th and 98th legions. Let us begin planning the campaign ahead.”
After only ten minutes of discussion, Kyle decided the Cagliar was his kind of man. He cut straight to the point and didn’t bother with politics, despite how much it seemed to irk some of his advisors. “This is going to be a straightforward meat grinder. There are enough of us and even more of them that tactics will be essentially insignificant. With your reportedly massive long-range power, I recommend that you soften up any forces we come across while the legionnaires form the frontline.” “That’s agreeable. My men wouldn’t stand a chance in close combat, their blades are magically sharp in my experience. No armor I could equip them with would be good enough.”
“Ah, we shall see. My small force of premonitionists and diviners report a gathering force in between us and Depot 01. It will serve as a good test, although I’m sure the scourge will be testing us as well.”
“Interesting. I was unaware of those schools of magic, I hope they’re reliable.” “Hah! As I said, we shall see.”
————
Battle of Depot 01
The first depot happened to be defending several fields of rich copper ore, which sent their goods up the rivers towards the mountains on barges pulled by the drones. If they took it, they would start chipping away at the supply lines of the Scourge, although it was usually ineffective to cut supply lines by nibbling on their exterior.
Some 3,000 estimated drones had gathered around the bastion itself. A large 5-story tower covered in wand-ports that could rain down supportive spellcasting on any approaching army.
They never foresaw that their foe would outrange them. Kyle still believed that howitzers and field guns weren’t as efficient as a couple hundred mortars, so the tactic continued. The legions set up skirmish lines throughout the large coniferous forest around the mines, while Kyle’s mortar men began to fire. After the first salvo, the drones were scrambling about looking for the source. At the fifth, they finally started moving towards the legionaries, but their numbers were cut down by almost 30 percent.
The car-sized four-legged black robots scuttled through the sparse forests deftly. They seemed to be mostly of the melee variety, as the outpost was expected to provide ranged cover. That was, until the tanks had shelled it into a battered metal ruin. The legionaries in the woods cut through the usually injured and much-reduced Scourge force, taking only a few casualties in particularly unlucky exchanges.
As the troops of the combined human force approached the battered fortress, a few spell ports shot some purple bolts of flame at the lines. The legionaries took the shots cleanly on their enchanted tower shields, negating the danger. Serenades of rifle fire peppered the few working turrets until the tower fell silent. Wonderful. A splendid battle all in all.
Kyle had been watching through one of his thunderhead drones high above. One of them had recently suffered a critical hardware failure due to a lack of maintenance and damage from Kyle carrying it on his armor into a few combat situations early on. He would have to use them while they lasted, as it would take years before he reproduced something similar locally.
The campaign was set to continue apace, and the army readied to march down the riverside towards a major supply depot miles south. Bad news from the eastern half of the Veskayan front. A huge, pitched battle between 160,000 legionaries and auxiliary troops and an estimated 300,000 drones had taken place, and the Empire had barely won a pyrrhic victory. That was not a good ratio, although many more troops awaited to be called on, including the 200,000 strong Riméan army from the western coastline of the Empire.
The war had just begun.
