A New Age of Warfare

Chapter 18 - Attack of Fort Valk (Part 1)...

Outside at the entrance of the fort, an army from the western front can be seen stationed here. In total, there are 100,000 Quan soldiers stationed below the fort, the army stationed below the fort is the 4th army. These two were pulled back to the fort as they got orders from IHQ to retreat to friendly territory.

This created a lot of confusion among the generals in the army since they were attacking, they were doing so well at conquering Grizalan lands, why were they retreating when they're doing so well?

The reason then came from IHQ, needless to say, they were shocked and were in disbelief that not only 1 army was gone but 3 armies were annihilated in a span of a week. This was unheard of among the Quans. At first, they didn't believe what IHQ said to them, in their minds, it was all a false report from a Grizalan spy to scare them. However, they then got confirmation that the 3 armies were completely annihilated from the emperor himself. He told them to retreat and regroup to start a counter-attack against the Grizalans while they were still trying to figure out who was the sudden unknown ally that the Grizalans got.

Thus, the colonels had no choice but to obey the emperor's order, after all, it would be treason if they ignored his commands.

As of now, the 4th army was told to stay at the bottom of the fort to guard the entrance to their territory if the Grizalans were planning on a counter-invasion.

Right now, the 2nd and 3rd army is currently retreating back to friendly lines to gather more men as they took more casualties than the 4th army since they were falling behind. As such, they were told to stay and guard the entrance to Quan territory. The 2 retreating armies will arrive at the border of the two nations after 4 days since they are far away and are exhausted from the constant moving and fighting in the western front.

Inside the former Grizalan war room, Garrison Commander Cross and his subordinates alongside them is Colonel Koss from the 4th army stationed below.

Colonel Koss was a 6'0 tall general with a muscular look, he has a beard and a fierce look in his eyes. The armor he wore was quite big compared to Quan standards, this set of armor has a rounded helmet, it is a t-shaped opening leaving the eyes, nose, and mouth exposed. The shoulders are fairly oval, very long, and small in size. The breastplate is made from several separate pieces which are layered on top of each other. It covers everything from the neck down and ends at the groin. The upper legs are covered by long leather pants with several layered metal sheets reaching down to the bottom of his leg. The lower legs are protected by greaves which have a skull-shaped metal ornament piece on each of the outer sides.

"How is the fort's defense coming along Commander Cross?" General Koss said with a gruff voice and his arms crossed on his chest.

Garrison Commander Cross looked up to him to meet his eyes, being 5'8 with a sleek muscular build, his height was where the average height of the Quan Dynasty is, although he was somewhat taller than most of the people he had met.

"It's coming along greatly, Colonel Koss," he said. He looked down to the table with the map of the fort on the right and the map of the area where the fort was positioned on the left, "The fort's defense will be finished today if we put more work into it, if not, this will be done in a day or two," he said to General Koss.

He continued to talk about something to Colonel Koss while looking at the map of the fort and the area, "How's your defense down there?" He asked while not looking at him.

"The walls are complete, the installation of towers with heavy weapons are almost finished we just need a few hours for the final touches," he said to Commander Cross, he then let out a sigh under his breath as he was thinking about the problem that the Imperial Quan Army is facing, "I still don't get it, when did the Grizalans get such strong allies to push us back," he said as he puts his hands on the table.