Part 41: Mission 42: Ride of the Valkyries
anilEhilated posted:
(picture of a wizard, "ominous" sounds)
The use of magic has become so widespread the Alliance has decided to create a new unit consistng entirely of humans with paranormal abilities: PARE* - the paranormal corps. They have proven tremendously useful; a part is being deployed wherever there's a suspicion of the enemy using magic, but most of them are on shrouding duty; it turns out that given sufficient numbers of concentrated minds, it is possible to protect our units from being detected by enemy spells. Forces of Darkness uses real fog against us; now we even the odds by using a mental one.
(cut to commander, engine sound in background and a round window behind him, implying he's in a warship)
Earlier this morning an amphibious assault was launched at the coast of China. The Alliance's army, navy and air force are all engaged in this, as well as most of our reserve. We've pulled all our trumps, John - and we're bluffing**.
The first wave, consisting of three independent fleets of battleships, cruisers and carriers, has already finished shelling the coast. Now it's up to marines and air support. Meanwhile, your job is to hit hard and fast. Target: the army of Portal Master Dragonus***. You need to seize the mysterious artifact the Forces of Darkness use to summon reinforcements from other worlds. The portal is normally protected by vast armies - but that's why I'm currently on my flagship! Realize, commander, that you're working in unison with more than a million soldiers. This is the biggest diversionary operation of all time; Forces of Darkness took our bait and according to satellite imagery we're about to be positively swarmed.
The whole war's outcome rest on your shoulders. Failure would be... very bad. I don't envy you - still, if you fail, the upper echelons will want my head, and they'll be in the right. I don't think it'd matter that much, though.
From the deck of flagship Taramis****, General Malcolm, signing off.
* Probably not supposed to be an abbreviation of anything but you can't tell with this game.
** Literally, the poker analogy doesn't make sense in the original either.
*** This one's bad. He says "Dragona" - which means that the guy could be called Dragon, Dragono, Dragonus, Dragone... Which probably sounds even stupider in English so I'm fully expecting the wizard in question (nothing in the speech implies that he's an actual dragon) gets renamed.
**** Could be "Taranis", I can't find any relevant meanings for either: Taramis is a queen from Conan stories, Taranis is a Celtic god; neither seems to work as a battleship name.
The largest Alliance offensive since the beginning of the war had begun. We were throwing everything we had at the Forces of Darkness from every direction, lines barely budging even as each side inflicted staggering losses on the other. It was absolute carnage on the frontlines.
Our next task, however, was not there. The Forces of Darkness had their hands full repelling the invasion, and had committed nearly all of their soldiers and supplies to the front. As far as we were aware, they didn't know that we had intelligence on the location of one of their Gates. But we did, and now, the Drunken Slavs would destroy it.
The Alliance had, finally, done away with restrictions on its best equipment. We now had MLRS rocket artillery and Hind attack helicopters available to us, along with a more advanced variant of the radar truck. While our funds were limited after our heavy losses in the Himalayas, we were still able to order two squadrons of Hinds and an upgrade to the new radar trucks. The Infomercial Men had proven quite capable during their time driving Humvees, so they were assigned to one of the Hind squadrons, with a new arrival taking over their former duty.
After our deadly encounter with a dragon, our science division had made researching them a priority. While the report included plenty that we already knew - they were highly resistant to conventional weapons and their breath was hot enough to melt tanks - we did learn a few things that could help us. Correlating what we saw of the dragon we fought with reports from other divisions confirmed that, rather than being mindless beasts like Wolves, Dragons were intelligent and capable of operating independently. It wasn't a fluke that the dragon first destroyed our radar, then targeted our SAM batteries. It knew exactly what it was doing. We also learned that their hides were thinnest on their bellies.
Magic may have enabled the dragons to fly, but even that couldn't make up for their vast sizes. Their wings simply were not powerful enough to keep them aloft for long. Dragons could only fly long enough to carry out short attack runs, incinerating a few targets and then flying back to ground themselves and rest their wings. In a sense, they operated similar to our own aircraft, though dragons were still quite dangerous on the ground.
We'd managed to recover a few mostly intact dragon hide tissue samples, and our R&D department believed that by studying these, they could engineer a new kind of armor. Other projects had taken higher priority at the moment, though. Advances in Archotral combusion technology had allowed for the design of more compact engines, and our engineers now believed that a human-portable variation was now possible. If successful, this could allow us to integrate jetpacks into our battlesuits.
We also used the chance to recruit an officer to take the place of the one we lost in the Himalayas. Our chain of command still wasn't complete, but we at least had everyone organized into battallions.
Our first task in China would be to strike the headquarters of The Astutes, the collective name for human traitors who were siding with the Forces of Darkness. The enemy hadn't yet had time to respond to our presence here; for once, they were the ones who were underequipped and undermanned. If we could destroy the Astutes here before they could organize a counterattack, Shen Tzu would be unable to support the Forces of Darkness here.
Mission 42: Ride of the Valkyries
Attending:
Lazarus (Forlorn Hope, Flamethrowers)
Solrick Skaft (Scion of Emer, Flamethrowers)
T. Hinman (Ethereal Corps, Flamethrowers)
Logan "Hardtack" Smith (War Dogs, Paranormal Infantry)
Joe Moore (War Boys, Paranormal Infantry)
"Doctor" Snark (Mage Killers, Hi-Tech Infantry)
Habitually Red (Sane Max's Own, Hi-Tech Infantry)
Gordon Frohman (Concerned Citizens, Hi-Tech Infantry)
Patrick Gallagher (Just In Time, Elmag 2)
Svetlana Aliyev (Rusalka, Elmag 2)
Mael Radec (Radec's Rhinos, M1 Abrams)
Erik Spanner (The Toolbox, M1 Abrams)
James "Griff" Griffin (Party Crashers, M1 Abrams)
Basil (Paladin, M1 Abrams)
Jorji Costava (Cobrastan's Best, M1 Abrams)
Isara Gunther (Edelweiss, M1 Abrams)
Reginald P. Linux (Doom Squad, Leopard 2A5)
Aethereon Darkfyre (The Mary Sues, UDES)
Stephen Smith (The Counts of Monty Python, UDES)
Anil E. Hilated, Esq. (Polite Obliteration, M106)
Grand Inquisitor Solaus (Balkanian Inquisition, AMX-30)
Gregor (The Swell Swords, AMX-30)
Michael de Boulogne (Chivalric Order of Saint George, AMX-30)
Cholmondely Featherstonehaugh-Smythe (Sphinx Battery, Roland)
Sigrún Raske (Skysmasher Brigade, Roland)
Roger Murtaugh (Less Than Lethal, Roland)
Billy Mays (Infomercial Men, Mi-24)
Bob & Doug McKenzie (Royal Canadian Red-greens, Mi-24)
Ragna T. Bloodedge (The Black Beasts, Humvees)
Vlasta Děvínská (Paper Tigers, Universal 2R)
Billy Mays: THE INFOMERCIAL MEN HERE TO TELL YOU WE JUST GOT BRAND NEW HELICOPTERS! WE DON'T JUST FIND THREATS ANYMORE, WE DESTROY THEM TOO!
Bob McKenzie: Oh good, something nice and easy to break in the new choppers.
Mael Radec: Everyone up. Be ready to support 'em if there's something nastier out there.
Doug McKenzie: Doesn't look like there is!
Hardtack: Just watch yourself. We've got confirmed intel that they have the range to hit you back.
Bob McKenzie: Pffft, we have chainguns and metal. They have bows and tunics.
Vlasta Děvínská: Let's see what else is out there.
Vlasta Děvínská: AT Orcs! Doesn't look like they've had time to dig in yet. Wow, the range and resolution on this new radar makes a huge difference.
Anil E. Hilated: Softened 'em up for you guys.
Doug McKenzie: Oh shit, they've got Stingers!
Billy Mays: AIR DEFENSE? NO PROBLEM! WE DELIVER DEATH ANYWHERE!
Griff: Shit, golems, golems!
Griff: Lots of 'em! I've taken heavy damage! Where the hell was our recon?
Anil E. Hilated: I'll try to help you, Griff! Can't do much from here, but maybe they needed those wolves to see you!
Isara Gunther: No they fucking didn't!
Ragna T. Bloodedge: Found 'em!
Erik Spanner: Alright, let's smash these fuckers before they can hit us again.
Erik Spanner: Like this!
Basil: Couldn't reach the other golem, that'll have to do.
Svetlana Aliyev: Nothing quite as satisfying as using these coilguns to break apart a golem piece by piece. It's like hitting them with six jackhammers at once.
Stephen Smith: Crisis averted? Good. I'm gonna keep scouting ahead.
Stephen Smith: More AT Orcs! Taking heavy rocket fire! I'm okay though, it's a good thing all those orcs have is pre-invasion hardware.
Gregor: Gregor know how to deal with orcs!
Billy Mays: WE HERE WITH THE INFOMERCIAL MEN ARE GLAD TO TELL YOU THAT THE ENEMY'S THROWN IN AN EXTRA BUNDLE OF STINGER-ARMED ORCS FOR FREE!
Vlasta Děvínská: Picking up golems on radar, too. Don't let 'em reach the artillery!
Anil E. Hilated: Don't you worry about us, Vlasta.
Vlasta Děvínská: And there's our trogs.
Ragna T. Bloodedge: Sighted the enemy base to the west.
Anil E. Hilated: Alright, guys, home stretch! Finish killing these trogs and there's nothing between us and their headquarters!
Aethereon Darkfyre: More come, their missiles streaking toward me like deadly butterflies carried on the wind!
Anil E. Hilated: Let 'em! As soon as they poke their heads out, they're dead.
Joe Moore: You didn't think we'd just sit back and let you guys have all the fun, did you?
Solrick Skaft: Modern weapons or not, they burn just the same!
Vlasta Děvínská: Anyway, with that out of the way, let's see what we're up against. Get ready, everyone, the place is probably gonna be crawling.
Michael de Boulogne: Vlasta, are you sure about these readings? The place looks nearly vacant.
Vlasta Děvínská: Radar doesn't lie. Maybe they're still in their barracks?
"Doctor" Snark: Not likely. This is supposed to be an elite unit we're up against. I have a feeling this is a trap.
Solaus: Let's see if we can't scatter the roaches, then.
Anil E. Hilated: No more targets in sight. Vlasta, can you get us a better view?
Vlasta Děvínská: Looks like we've got 'em running scared.
Lazarus: Is that really all that's left?
Mael Radec: Only one way to be sure. Hinds, recon the base, but be careful.
Bob McKenzie: Yeah, I'm not seeing anything el-
Bob McKenzie: They're converging on us, taking heavy fire!
Billy Mays: BUT WE'RE DISHING IT OUT, TOO!
Mael Radec: Choppers, keep reconning the site! The artillery will cover you!
Doug McKenzie: You've got it, Boss.
Bob McKenzie: Uh, sir? We just finished our sweep of the base. All that's left is another Orc company.
Patrick Gallagher: Wait, aren't these guys supposed to be Elites? Where are the Wizards? The Hell Riders? I would've at least expected a platoon of Mechanical Mammoths or Sonic Tanks.
"Doctor" Snark: Where indeed. Elites don't stick around and fight pitched battles against the numbers we brought, and the Forces of Darkness are no exception.
Habitually Red: In other words, they slipped off, no doubt planning to cause us trouble further down the line.
Mael Radec: It'd seem so. Even so, a major military base is a nice prize in itself, and it's ours now.
The Astutes may have slipped away from us, but the mission wasn't a total loss. The speed of our attack, while not sufficient to prevent them from escaping, had evidently forced them to leave significant stores of fuel and ammunition behind, along with stocks of modern infantry weapons. In the face of the Alliance's dwindling supplies, it was a welcome gain.