<Battle Record: The First Battle for Mount Umbra>
Date of creation: Nova Aetas 3, Jan 29
"Seriously? Again?" I shouted over the siren. "The Northeastern side of Mount Umbra at altitude 400 meters was attacked 37 seconds ago, Automated Defense Command unable to deploy sufficient units, require administrator intervention." AMY's robotic voice is calm as always, as I didn't even code her with emotion emulation.
I got to the control room, and the video feed on screen shocked me to the core.
There are Storm Soldiers everywhere, where there was white snow is now a shuffling black swarm of enemies, trying to devour the defense force standing in its way a few hundred meters away. Their front is constantly cut down, but the next row will charge on, forming an eerie black wave. Despite the obviously mounting losses, they don't seem to be concerned about self-preservation, not at all, they just charged on.
"Artillery open fire at section 12 to 15, range 300, standing barrage." I gave orders to start shelling the enemy.
A wall of fire rolled across the battlefield, and the explosion was heard even in the control room, 30 kilometers away. I was briefly startled by the low thumping of the shockwave. The video shows a terrifying scene.
The shells first punched through the snow layer, which wasn't solid enough to trigger the fuse, then they presumably hit the ground below, which is solid enough. The explosions they caused ripped up the snow and whatever debris caught in the blast, those include bodies, swords, armor, and whatever the Storm Creatures were bringing to battle before they met their demise, even though the shrapnel the shells were designed to fragment into were caught in the snow, they, combined with the debris, were still lethal enough as an area denial method.
For the first time, I saw them panic. They helplessly run in circles and missing an arm or a leg, I couldn't see it clearly because of the darkness and smoke (where is the smoke from? I remember using smokeless powder, and I don't see my gun spew out smoke like that, and also what is burning in the craters making all that smoke?!) They were starting to turn back and run!
I thought of letting them off, but if I leave them to run, they will surely come back for me in a few day, or even hours.
I steeled myself and updated the firing order, "Artillery open fire at section 12 to 15, range 300, creeping barrage interval 10." I fully know what that would lead to, and I am willing to do so if it means that they will get scared and leave for good.
But they didn't.
A few hours later, a recon squad spotted them building an outpost on the slopes Hoofer's Mountain, a very advantageous spot as they can see the artillery below them if i were to strike. In addition, more of them are arriving, and most worryingly they are bringing airships to that outpost, which means only one thing, they want to drop bombs on my army. This needs to be countered immediately before they can use it on me.
<Battle Record: The Follow-up Counterattack of The First Battle of Mount Umbra>
Date of creation: Nova Aetas 3, Jan 29
With the unexpectedly successful use of artillery cannons, I wanted to make the most out of this time-dependant advantage. They will eventually get over this fear, so I must make every second count.
Several brigades and an ample amount of artillery are already positioned on the surrounding high grounds. All of them are already loaded and aimed, once the clock ticks 19:30, D-Time!
Several hundred shells fly off, trailing a chilling whistle as they cut through the air. The Storm Creatures seemed to have adapted to it slightly already, I no longer see them running away, but they are still terrified when the ground around them is ripped open by an explosion. The infantry opens fire as soon as the first shells land, showering the area with lead. The Storm Creatures haven't recovered from the initial shock yet, so not much stood in the way as the bots start breaking into their frontline. Still, no one is surrendering.
As the infantry pushed through, those who fought back were shot, and those who were unable to fight back were knocked unconscious, bagged up, and dragged to the rear to be sent to P.O.W. Camps. With guns blazing, the raiders fought their way to the backlines. Sometimes an enemy will get close enough to deal actual damage to the bots, before getting captured or shot, but most are just panicking as they were still getting shelled, right before getting dealt with.
Finally, I caught a glimpse of a small building which stood out from the shabby barracks around it, I know that's the one thing I'm looking for: Their officers. I can give them a big slap on their face if I can capture someone other than mere cannon fodder, and the loss of a commanding officer will most definitely send at least some repercussions up their hierarchy. Especially seeing that they've probably never expected a fight longer than a few weeks, judging by their lack of warm clothing, so they probably didn't expect someone competent enough to capture their officers.
A squad immediately approached the doorway under the covering fire of the other raiders, they pulled the nails out of the door (the redeeming feature of these improvised combatants is that they can disassemble enemy constructions quite effectively), and barged into the building. Inside was a few Storm Creatures that looked quite different from the rest. They looked down on the bots arrogantly and started to monologue, trash talking about this being only a tiny portion of their full power and me not standing a chance even with "cheating". Assuming that they are just trying to buy time, I just had them bagged up and sent to a P.O.W camp as well.