Ad Astra - The Alagore War

AA V1 Alagore, Chapter 15

Hearing a sudden loud chain of explosions, Mathew Ryder rushed back into the bunker. Looking out the window, he saw the Eaton taking a massive fire of small arms. While those infantry weapons would only scratch the paint, the immense impact from a Circiletum Walker damaged the tank.

"The enemy isn't giving up," King said. "What is the plan?"

Struggling to respond with an answer, Ryder saw enemy mages and infantry attack the tank, throwing everything they had against the armored beast of machinery. A combination of energy, fire, ice, and ground magic impacted the tank. Like before, the ground underneath started giving away while the enemy artillery shells affected all around the tank.

The excitement before completely evaporated as everyone watched the intense bombardment from the enemy against their armor. Ryder looked to the right and saw one of the four Eatons that came through the Bridge also receiving significant damage. He then heard over the radio that the tank on the northern flank lost its primary cannon from concentrated fire.

"To all commands, this is Colonel Hackett. The Bridge has been reactivated. Begin withdrawing operations."

Hearing his team's grumbles about having to retreat only infuriated the Captain. He understood that his team felt that everything they had done at this point was now pointless, but more importantly, they lost.

Seeing that the 4th Infantry Ivy soldiers were setting up a rear guard to provide the Minutemen, Rangers, and all the other support units the necessary time to retreat, Ryder turned toward the tank, watching it being hammered by the immense projectile and energy firepower. Its armor was steaming and scorched.

Staring out, Ryder felt his rage slip away, replaced with shame—the shame of defeat, loss, and broken promises. While no soldier wishes to be defeated, his actual loss came from being a failure of a husband, breaking his promise to his wife, Carlie Ryder.

Recalling the Templar question about what he was here, deep down inside, he didn't have an answer, only a sense of direction. He had hoped coming here would bring answers and a renewed purpose.

"Is this really how it is going?" Ryder asked himself. "Nothing but defeat and failure? Again?"

Taking a deep breath, Mathew Ryder turned to see the enemy forces. Confused, he saw a break from the cloud cover, peaking through the sky. The Captain looked up and saw one of Tekali's children, which looked like a giant crystal with mist trailing it like a comment. If he called, Natilite called it Virmina. This star system's sun's light reflected off the moon and partly burned the magical cloud on the battlefield.

Finding the phenomenon strange, he looked back toward the light. The enemy was still focusing on their tanks. An explosion against Eaton's tracks destroyed them, making the tank immobile.

"I don't know how much more it can take," Forest said.

"They are throwing everything at it," Ford said.

"Get your head in the game," King ordered. "They are taking the hit so we can withdraw. So, let's move."

Ryder thought carefully about the word as he watched the enemy smash the tank. A power projectile from one of the enemy circiletum impacted the armor, heavily damaging it. However, that was different from what the Captain was focused on. His team was correct; the enemy was concentrated in the tanks. However, he also noticed that they focused on nothing else.

The chaos suddenly disappeared, and everything became clear. While the Americans were confused and unknowledgeable by what the enemy had, this also was the enemy's mindset. While they struggled to find counters to the enemy's magic because of lack of experience - like the alg monsters- the Verliance Aristocracy had no experience against heavily armored vehicles. Their solution was to throw everything at the problem and hope it would remove it, ignoring almost everything else, ignoring them. He had no idea if this was out of fear, confusion, or lack of coordination by the enemy leadership, but everything became clear as day.