Over time, the other three finally materialized into the starting area, one by one. Each of them looked worse for wear. I thankfully healed relatively quickly, so it wasn’t too bad of an issue for me. Once the last one spawned in, I swiped away my menu and turned towards Cassius. He had his cigar pinched between his lips and was gazing at the screen. Once the last arrival sat down, he turned around and looked at us.
“Alright, ladies. Good job. I’m sure that many of you got some well-earned experience on that fight, which is good. The next few days for you will be grueling as I try to bring you up to par with what we expect our administrators’ military branch to be.” He pulled the cigar out of his mouth and flicked away the crumbling ash, which was caught by the gently blowing wind.
“Now, our next training session will be unit tactics and how Administrators fight with their mortals.” He made a quick motion, and he brought up a spreadsheet with all of us; underneath our names were hundreds of numbers that were cycling through faster than the eye could see.
“Now, while we Administrators are powerful beings, we are bound by certain limitations. The first being is that we are only as strong as how many mortals we have.” He quickly typed in a few things, and I saw my health bar plummet down to just barely past a few thousand points. “I went ahead and adjusted your health to match the units that you will lead for this next training exercise. Once you leave, your health will shift back to its original form, so this isn’t a permanent change.”
I nodded my head as I listened along, trying to drink in the information I was given. I wanted to be ready for whatever may come my way, now or in the future. He zoomed the map out and looked over the city. “Now, here is the scenario. This city is under attack by an Administrator who is far stronger than you. Your primary goal is to defend the city at all costs. At the end of the training run, you will get rewards based on how well you do. Questions so far?” He asked as he pulled out his cigar and blew out a fat puff of smoke.
“Yes! What defines how well we do?” The young blood elf’s peppy voice shot out.
“How many mortals you can keep alive, and how many of you are alive at the end of the mission,” Cassius told us as the world around us changed once more. I nodded my head and listened along. So all I had to do was protect the mortals and fight off my opponents. That wasn’t too bad. I had a bit of a head start in class, but I have never fought with these Administrators before.
“What technology level will our mortals be?” It was a critical question since I wasn’t sure if I would run with mortals of my planet’s level or something much more advanced.
“I gave you training dummies who are scaled to your world’s technology level. To further expand upon that, you each will get ten thousand dummies apiece, and you can use some of your elites as well. There will be equipment pre-designated to all of you in turn.” He brought the cigar back to his mouth, and the tip turned as red as a cherry.
For a time, silence hung in the air between us, and a question wormed its way into my mind. “Who will we be fighting?”
Cassius turned his gaze towards us, and a wicked smile crossed his face. “Me.”
I knew in an instant that we were fucked. The muttering from the other Administrators echoed that thought. “Alright, ladies. You will have some time to get ready for the invasion. Good luck.” With that, he vanished, leaving me with the others.
“Well, shit.” The spider woman muttered out and sunk into her chair. The Blood Elf’s eyes were wide, and the strange administrator with us stayed stoic, and I turned to the map to take in the area. Just cause everyone else seemed dejected didn’t mean that I had to be. However, I know that this would be a losing fight. I pushed myself up from the chair and looked over the city that we were in.
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The size of the city was significantly smaller than it was before. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was only sixty-eight square miles. Not a bad size, and considering that we had forty thousand troops between us, we should get a good defensive formation up. This would be the first time that I would partake in a battle this size, and against someone I know, we had no chance of winning against. “Does anyone have any ideas that might save us?” I turned around and brought up my menu, ready to pull my companions in.
“Well, how about we position around the city based on our strengths? The spider woman broke the silence. That should work. I do not know what kind of force Cassius would bring into battle, but any advantage we could get the better.
“That should work. I have a class set up that focuses heavily on damage; I have little to no support skills.” I turned from the screen and faced my companions.
“I have a support and utility-based class. It should help suppress the enemy while we fight. At least until they adapt.” Yorak spoke up next, and I zeroed in on what he said.
“What do you mean adapt?”
“Since Cassius is leading their attack, that means that we will fight Eden’s Assault troops, and that will not be a straightforward thing to do.” He crossed his arms and stretched his legs out as he spoke, and I nodded along.
“What do you know about them? Do they have any weaknesses?” I bombarded him with questions, partially to help with now, though mostly for future use since I would lead an army of them once the actual war starts.
“Eden’s Assault Corps is one of the most feared military groups in the Milky Way. They act as the vanguard to any war fleet and are usually the first boots on the ground. They come equipped to deal with any problem that may arise and are amongst the galaxy's best-trained troops. Hell, I’ve seen a company of them face down a troll war boss and not even flinch.” As Yorak spoke, a sense of awe-filled my chest along with a healthy dosage of fear.
“Why would we be fighting them? Isn’t that a bit overkill for us?” I quickly glanced at my menu to see what tech level my mortals were at before I continued speaking. “I mean, my troops are labeled as being in the classical era. There's no way I can handle them.” To be frank, I was annoyed. It felt like Cassius was about to use us as a punching bag.
“It’s because he’s trying to get us ready. Yorak is the only one here who has troops in the late space age. My self and Lxyander here have only just broken into that age. Mostly everyone we will fight will have us outclassed in every way. I think in his own twisted way, he’s just trying to break us in.” Melanore looked up from her menus and regarded me with sad eyes.
I don’t blame Cassius. I really don’t. I was just on a high from my victory against that other Administrator, and I wasn’t looking forward to getting a boot in my face. “It makes sense, though I’m not a fan. Yorak, is there anything else you can tell us that may help us out in the long run?”
“From what I know, their usual M.O is orbital drops. That alone makes it significantly harder for us to defend against. They can drop troops anywhere on us. We would have to limit that ability, or at least make it as dangerous as possible for them.” I turned back to the map to look it over as we hashed out our battle plan.
“Lxyander, you have been quiet. Do you have any input?” I could hear Melanore’s voice behind me as she talked to her Blood Elf-friend; I toned in to listened along as my eyes danced across the cityscape, desperately trying to find a path to victory, though I knew it was in vain.
“Sorry, I was a little overwhelmed with everything. Um, A lot of my skills are large A.O.Es, so I can lend a hand towards keeping the skies clear. We can set up kill zones with anti-air weapons.” He sounded morose, and I don’t blame him. We were about to fight a losing battle.
“That should work. Usually, they would bombard key positions from orbit, but I don’t see Cassius pulling in carriers for this training sim. Though, that means that we need to heavily fortify our positions since they will turn their focus there.” I felt inclined to agree with Yorak. However, that wasn’t saying much. I lacked experience in this department. But I would do my best. I refuse to back down from a challenge, and I would go down swinging, though I think I will leave my companions out of this one. I didn’t want to see them get hurt, especially since I couldn't stop it.