Captain Silver was paying attention to the rather elaborated presentation her Duchess was giving to her and her team, with a very fancy illusion spell at that. Her entire team was inside the new ship the Forgemaster Idun and his people were working for months, deep under the bay that lead to their target.
"With the new equipment and Helicopters me and the folk here have built, you are to assault this forward enemy base" Lucrezia showed the castle built right in the middle of the Fields, more of a fortress than a proper castle but still manned by a good number of Knights and Mercs hired by Azarel.
"Built by magical means no doubt, are we to blow it up?" Asked Sargent Micolish with a worried face "Those towers will have means to intercept air targets no doubt, the boy hired dwarven mercs with the means for it"
"For that, we will also be using the new fighter jet squadron, capable of breaking the sound barrier they will soften the anti-air measures up, and you people will swoop into as you said, blow the whole place up" Lucrezia snapped her fingers and a square box appeared in the illusion "This is the payload, MK I Destroyers, made to demolish fortifications that aren't made out of rare materials, it packs a punch but it takes time to set it up, we couldn't work out the kinks in time" Lucrezia explained.
A rifle, unlike the new bolt action ones the troops had it showed, had a boxed magazine like the pistols commanders were found of and some sort of sight on top of it, the sleek pitch-black design earned a few noises of approval from Silver's team as their blessings of war kicked in.
A new weapon, Semi-Automatic rifles! the bleeding edge of weapons development, tailor-made by Lucrezia and Idun themselves...And someone else?
Lucrezia smiled "Ah your blessing picked it up, yes I had to call a friend to get these beauties up, the blessing of the All-Father is a boon that has no equal, thanks to her we have the new weapons, and new ammunition to boot"
Silver nodded "And we get the honor to put those beauties to the test, heh" a few laughs from her men "But I have a feeling there's more to this plan my lady?"
"Indeed" Lucrezia snapped her fingers again and 5 iron rods showed up, full of runes and sigils "These are important for the battle to come, once the castle is down you and yours are to plant them in these locations," said locations appeared in the map.
"Captain Silver, I know your people are upset about the break-in from last week but that was a boon rather than an ill omen, today we will redefine what is warfare in this world and your people will be the very tip of that spear, let not the past weight on you for today we will change the world"
"30 Seconds" Silver spoke in her Magi-Tech radio to her men.
"Direwolf 1 Actual this is Razgriz 02 flying of two AXF-01, 10 AGM for the section, standby for SEAD over." the voice from the dwarven pilot came over the radio, cold and cruel as his plane flew right below the helicopters.
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"Solid Copy Razgriz, smite them" Silver replied as the other plane swooped in and a great boom was heard across the entire capital.
The planes had broken the sound barrier.
"Good tone Good tone Kitsune 3 Kitsune 3" both planes' comms flared up as the Anti-Air apparatus from the mercenaries went up in flames, the 3 Helicopters flew right behind them, breaching into the fields as the entire Academy, and no doubt the entire Capital woke up.
"Good Kill Good Kill" Razgriz 01 spoke on the cooms "Direwolves you clear to breach I repeat you are clear to breach"
"Guns, Guns, Guns" Direwolf 3 called as the Magi-Tech Missiles flared from their bays, blowing up the command center of the castle, mists of blood went up as Direwolf 2 and 1 swooped in from the sides.
"Enemies on the walls, Snipers get ready" Silver called in as her Helicopter flew by the enemies "Stabilize it" Bullets flew from their barrels, piercing the enemies' hastily made Ki and Mana shields.
"Shift right" Silver called in and the pilot did so "Stabilize " the machine stood in place as she and her men killed more mercenaries "Chief are you sure they won't die?!" one of the soldiers asked.
"The Fields are always active! they won't die!" Silver screamed over the gunfire "Now cut the chatter and stay frosty!" as she finished speaking one of the planes boomed past her, shaking the entire Helicopter.
"Direwolf 1 you have 5 minutes, the capital has dispatched Griffin and Mage flights to the academy!" The comms flared again.
"Direwolf 2 and 3 sat down, Bravo and Charlie have been deployed" Micolish's voice piped in "Turtle take Bravo and prepare the explosives, Pilots provide cover as needed"
"Solid copy, setting down Alpha and moving to overwatch" The pilot of Direwolf 1 replied as did from 2 and 3,
"Cap, ROE?" Micolish's voice asked on the radio.
"Kill them all" Silver replied as she began firing, the Knights and Mercenaries around them were barely able to muster any sort of counterattack, she and her team began sweeping the lower wall for the right place to detonate the bomb, often they were ambushed by knights with half their gear or no gear at all on their person, the mercenaries put more of a fight after the initial shock.
Booms in the skies told Silver they were running late "Razgriz, how long until they get here?" she asked just as Charlie finished setting up their bomb, Bravo had been the first and her team was just mopping up the last survivors of the zone around it.
"2 minutes" the reply came, Silver waved her hand in the air and spoke on the radio "All Direwolves this is Alpha 1, we are ready for exfill I repeat we are ready for exfill" the sound of the Helicopters came from up above and they all rushed to their exit.
As all teams converged into the exfill point, the main doors of the castle were blown from the outside, and several Knights rushed in, at their front, a beautiful blonde Knight screamed "who dares invade Lord's Azarel's domain! my Knights forward!"
"All Direwolves, open fire" Silver didn't even flinch as she reloaded her rifle and began firing, her men as well.
It took 45 seconds, 45 seconds until the Helicopter's missiles and their new weapons halted the charge dead on its track, the surviving enemies moaning in pain or trying to crawl out of the gore mess, death was halted in this place, pain wasn't.
As they went away the castle went up in a big blast of fire and magic, they neatly touched down in the pad that sat on top of the new ship and sunken back into the bay, the Razgriz jets doing the same shortly after it.
The battle had begun, today would be the day that changed it all, Silver felt her Blessing of War shake as did her people, a cascade of sphere shifts, a battle for the ages.
"Wait until you hear the cannons" the voice of Lucrezia came on the radio, she could picture the young woman smiling at the thought, she was too, seeing the many ships submerged together with the big one.
"It's time"