I climbed the closest tower. The terrain is 5 metres downhill from the post and then a straight plain till the coast. So from a tower one can easily see his forces. So, this is perfect for me. On the tower was a sniper. He was about to stand up.
"Keep doing what you are," I ordered him, and he continued his sniping.
I looked at the field and saw Alfred and Ilfir engaging the enemy. Our battalion's flag was visible. I had ordered the rest 300 of my troops to come here. I wore my communications headset and began to order them.
"Alfred, take your squad to the west and then head south. Engage the enemy on your east."
"Yes, sir," Alfred replied.
"Ilfir, you will move to the east and engage the enemy on your west."
"Okay," He replied.
"Falker, where are you?"
"We have just arrived." He said, and I saw his Irgis-12 stopping beside the tower.
"Three of your tanks will remain here and provide cover. The rest three will go 200 metres further and attack the TTC and other heavy armour only." I said to him.
"Roger," He shouted from below, and followed my orders.
"Captain Tergis, where are the rest?"
"We will be arriving in 3 minutes."
"The soldiers will join Ilfir and Alfred. The artillery units will target the enemy ships. They are at a distance of 15 kilometres, so it won't be a problem."
"Copy," Tergis replied.
After 5 minutes, the remaining troops had joined Alfred and Ilfir. The artillery was in place as well.
"We are ready, sir." The second lieutenant, in charge of the artillery cannons, replied.
"Okay, wait for my orders."
I scanned the enemy forces. I zoomed my binoculars to a distance of 5 kilometres. They were moving slowly, but steadily.
"Major Werner, which ships are attacking our forces?" I asked the major.
"There are three destroyers, 4 kilometres from the coast."
"Roger," I replied. "Lieutenant, do you see 4 destroyers on your GPS monitors?"
"Yes, sir. They are visible and in our range."
"Fine, target one of them and concentrate all the cannons on it."
"Yes, sir." He replied.
They began to move the cannons and aimed them at the destroyer in the middle.
"Sir, we are ready."
"Okay…FIRE!!!" I ordered.
They fired. The recoil of the cannons shook my ears and the ground. The shells screamed through the air and hit the destroyer's side. It was a bullseye. The ship sank.
"Perfect hit. Perfect." Major Werner replied.
"All 7 cannons change course. Target the next destroyer."
"Reloading done!!" The second lieutenant replied. "The aim is set."
"Alright, FIRE!!!" I ordered.
They fired, and the shells covered the 15 kilometres distance, eliminating the second destroyer.
"Another down!" The major replied. "The remaining are retreating."
"Let them go. Remain on standby." I ordered and began to look at Alfred. They were causing heavy damage to the enemy. As I scanned the situation, something in the sky caught my eye. It was a shell. It came and hit our artillery.
"Lieutenant!" I called his name.
"We are alright. Two cannons down." He replied.
"It's a destroyer, 9 kilometres from your position." Major Werner informed me.
"Felker," I called him.
"Yes, sir. We have it in our range. Aiming…" Felker replied.
The three Irgis-12s fired. Six shells travelled the 9 kilometres and hit the stern and the side of the destroyer.
"Five hits, one miss." The major informed. "It's heavily damaged. It's retreating."
"Felker, reload. Don't let this one escape." I ordered him.
"Yes, sir." He replied.
They reloaded and fired. This time we had 4 hits and two misses. But those 4 hit the side and the stern. The ship began to sink slowly.
"These new tanks are indeed powerful," Felker said.
"Yeah, they are currently our most powerful land vehicles," I replied.
Three hours had passed. The battle raged on. I was able to halt their advance. They were not stopping the fire, but they had stopped moving. Suddenly, an explosion erupted on the eastern side. And then I saw the doors of Targalia open. And our soldiers began to run out of it. Followed by our vehicles and then many TTCs.
"There are too many!!!" Ilfir shouted.
"What's wrong, Ilfir!?" I asked.
"Too many TTCs. They are nearly 50…AHHHHH." Ilfir screamed.
"ILFIR!?!?!?" I shouted his name.
"They have completely left the east. All the TTC are moving to the west. They have destroyed the western gate. They are flooding the city." Major Argin informed me.
After that, I saw our forces on the western coastline retreating. All 133,000 troops were running back. And they were followed by nearly 50 TTCs.
"They are TOO MANY. We have to fall back." Alfred shouted.
Then I heard multiple explosions. The Navy has begun firing as well. My hands began to shake.
"Martin, get down. We have to retreat to the defence HQ." Colonel Felmer called me.
I listened and began to climb down. As I saw the Irgis-12, an idea sparked in my mind. I climbed down the tower and climbed onto the tank.
"ALL IRGIS-12. ADVANCE!!! We will stop the TTCs." I commanded.
"Alright! All units, you heard the major." Felker commanded his soldiers.
"Martin, where are you going?" The colonel asked me.
"Sir, these tanks are built for this," I said and cut my communication headset.
"All tanks, formation alpha," I ordered.
The tanks moved. Felker's tank was in the front, and the rest behind in a left-to-right line. In this formation, we rushed towards the TTCs. The TTCs came running at us at full throttle. But we didn't stop. We gave full throttle as well. We were going for head-on collisions.
We ran at full throttle, and just as we reached, I got inside. Our tanks trampled over the TTCs, crushing them.
This was the speciality of Irgis-12. It was a fifth-generation tank, having heavy composite armour. It was slower compared to the TTC. But its power was tenfold that of a TTC. Even powerful enough to run over it.
As we trampled over them. We changed our course and moved west. From the west, we moved south and took the flank. One of our tanks fired at the gatehouse of the western gate and destroyed it. We had sealed the western entrance.
Once we fell behind, we aimed and started firing at them. The Irgis-12 had another feature. The right and left barrels could move horizontally, respectively. This meant the tank could target two objects at once. Using this feature, we aimed at 12 TTC simultaneously. The first 12 shots took down 7 TTC. We reloaded and fired again. This time, we destroyed 10 TTC. It was not just the tanks; the crew was the best part of the army. They moved here and there. Our new weapon, the perfect counter for TTCs, frightened them.
After chasing them, I heard multiple artillery sounds. On my orders, all of the tanks turned west. And in that moment, the TTCs blew into unseen fragments. It was the Arkin-165 artillery cannons from the farthest artillery line. We paced up and left the TTCs to the Arkin-165s.
After ten minutes of driving, we reached the Defence HQ.
"That…was suicide." Major Werner said to me as we stopped.
"That was actually an amazing stunt." Colonel Felmer replied. "Good work, you saved almost 120,000 soldiers."
I got down. "Well done, all of you," I said to the tank crew.
"But…the city has fallen into their hands," Alfred said, as he tightly held his injured arm.
Yes, the city had fallen. But we didn't lose our soldiers. We have them; if we have them, we can take the city again.
Now, I was sure that Rokhnir was here. It was time for my showdown with him.