Part 33: Battle 15: The Church of Memories

Task Organization







Main Effort




Dragon Elimination Squadron




Fires and Effects




Medical Service/Support




Distant Reserve

Situation



For unknown reasons, the enemy from beyond the "Door to a New Era" has targeted the Church of Memories and threatens a major bastion of the cultural history of Kahna.

Enemy Forces



Terrain: The terrain around the Church of Memories is heavily forested, with occasional roads interrupting the forest and several bodies of water present. There are numerous obstacles to our mobility, resulting in severely restricted avenues of approach. The only key terrain in this battle is the Church of Memories, and as a result unconventional movement techniques may be used to overcome our difficulties.



Disposition: The enemy is arrayed in a loose semi-circular formation around the Church of Memories. Light troops make up the majority of forces to the northwest, while the enemy commander is protected by a screen of centaur-like heavy forces and a small but significant group of mages and healers. Finally, the enemy counts among their assets some kind of draconic creature that we have not encountered before. The enemy's capabilities remain largely the same as previously observed, except in the case of their dragon which represents a dangerous unknown factor. In addition, the Imperial General Palpaleos has been observed in the area.



Enemy's most likely course of action: The enemy will most likely attempt to converge on the Church of Memories, but will take little to no action to prevent tactical maneuvers and will not coordinate effectively for attacks.

Enemy's most dangerous course of action: The enemy could use their light forces to create a distracting target and then combine their heavy, magical, and draconic forces in a devastating flanking attack while our troops are distracted and tired from dealing with the initial attack.

Mission



The KRF will conduct defensive operations in the vicinity of the Church of Memories immediately in order to prevent the enemy from gaining a foothold on Kahna and protect Kahna's rich cultural heritage from destruction.

Execution



Concept of the Operation: The KRF will split into two main elements for this operation, with the primary goal being to defend the Church of Memories. The majority of our forces will head toward the Church of Memories in order to engage any enemies in the vicinity and destroy them, then attack the enemy CP as appropriate in order to take control of the field. A second group will split off in order to deal with the enemy's irregular forces, with support from the medical team as appropriate. Both forces will meet up after completing their respective tasks to push the enemy from this territory once and for all.



Scheme of Maneuver: Myself, Lukia, Mist, and Barclay will move out immediately and will compose the main thrust toward the Church of Memories. Matelite has requested the honor of engaging the enemy's dragon, and will form the core of our second group with Yoyo and Sendak in support.

End Order



As soon as the battle began, the lack of mobility in the terrain made itself clear. The biggest culprits were the thick forests in the area and the large lake directly to our north, but Sendak had a solution for half of those problems:




Thankfully Leviathan doesn't appear to feel that it's beneath his dignity to assist us by freezing over the majority of a lake to allow for easier passage.



Lukia led her group to complete the bridging maneuver and to ensure that the rest of our forces could cross.



As our forces and those of the enemy closed on the Church of Memories, Palpaleos surprised us all by striking out at the enemy's approaching forces. Could he be... on our side?



Approaching the enemy's dragon, Matelite met a much warmer reception. Much to our shock, the dragon had a far more powerful attack than anything we had dealt with thus far.



Regardless of this difficulty, Matelite's group closed with the dragon and began to work at killing it..



And work...



And work. Perhaps because of its unnatural origin, the dragon from the hole in the sky had an impossible endurance far beyond that of our own dragons.



Nearer to the Church itself, our efforts were somewhat more successful.



Working together our forces were able to completely disable a pair of attacking enemies who had gotten a bit too close, while giving the rest something to think about.



A few were so startled that they sat immobile in burning forests and waited for death to claim them. Our worries about this enemy's sensibilities continue to grow.



Although our forces had to resort to hand to hand conflict with the enemy, they were certainly more than capable of dealing with the challenges before them.



Sue, in particular, was a terror to the enemy's forces.



Mist led our assassins in close attacks within the burning ruins of the forest, at great risk to life and limb that could possibly been avoided had they simply waited a bit for nature to take its course. Still, they were effective.



Having dealt with the majority of the enemy's lighter forces, the rest of our dragons and attacks were directed at the more powerful centaur type monsters.



As the enemy's mage corps approached their position, however, I can only imagine that Matelite's groups was feeling under ever more pressure to deal with the dragon once and for all.




In the end, after three more unsuccessful attempts Clyde had to step in and finish the job himself. Lodged within the monster's flesh was the spear called Invincible. While not the most famous spear of legend, it was close enough.



A single centaur managed to reach the Church of Memories, but had little time to make trouble before being destroyed by fi... weren't we supposed to be protecting this place?




The rest of the centaurs managed to stall our offense for quite some time, buying more time for their leader to move up with their own lives.




Eventually, however, the common soldiers began to realize that the battle was hopeless and began making suicide charges at our dragons that, universally, failed miserably. For some reason the dragons are disinclined to hold still for such shenanigans.




Having finished off the dragon, Matelite's crew began an in depth and earnest attempt to kill ever mage they could get their hands on. Unfortunately, the enemy's healers stubbornly refused to die...



Although Yoyo and Sendak had a solution for that particular problem.



Blinky, feeling left out of the battle, rushed forward to face the now extremely lonely enemy commander.




I was worried about him for a brief second, but once he unleashed one of the bizarre attacks that only he appears to have mastered my worries disappeared.



Our attacks were soon able to strip him of his first group of guards, but Ixsett demonstrated the same ability that the previous commander from beyond the door had and summoned a new set as soon as given the chance. I hope this isn't a common ability of these clowns.



Ixsett uses the same techniques that we've seen before.. how exactly are these enemies connected?



At the very end it was Truce who struck the final blow, striking true past Ixsett's impotent and imbecilic guards.



Another slain enemy, another puzzling fragment of information. Where is this Altair that he wants us to come to..?



Wherever it is, they must have kings and queens there.. as demonstrated by its possession of a royal gown.



Since Altair wasn't an option, we decided instead to see how the Church of Memories had weathered the battle.