Invading Vimasdra: Full Invasion

 With a force of  407, 063, just 966 tanks, 656 aircraft providing air cover, and other force f 40,000 Orcs from Dos City and Liv, their invasion began. Baralai Earthwire and his fellow infantry pushed into Vimasdra 11-13 miles in before encountering their first engagement. They were forming the first advance while 797, 952 cover their backs and the borders. Among the first wave was them the infantry, the airborne, and Rangers attacking Vimasdra. Outside a village that endured some damage from bombing a battalion dug itself into the dirt. One long fire fight took up eleven hours of their time. Forced to slow their advance and take cover they took their time chipping away at the defenders. Most just had either old rifles, muskets, crossbows, or other projectiles to use. It showed how little the Nazdar trusted their subjects with modern weapons. Defending the settlement or two was a force of 2,626 Vimasdrans. A third of the force counter attacked, which failed. Only a few hundred deaths, and close to 1213 wounded was all the 166th suffered in this first battle of the full-scale invasion. Entering this town, they discovered a castle system build level with the three-story buildings. Among the traditional homes they found three modern looking homes, and various workshops, and stores. Most were abandoned by the inhabitants before the invasion. While searching this abandoned settlement they found six Nazdar assault rifles in a cafe called The Lost Queen Cafe. Next to it stood a Mercentile building and a large pub distillery. 

As expected, their commanders called for them to rally on them. What they did not expect was for 10 bartenders to charge out and stab eight of their fellow Vestrisians. Showing clear signs of Nazdar brainwashing the Vestrisians were given no other choice than to execute them on the spot. Now forced to search all the buildings, Baralai and his unit were sent to search the castle system. A small force was present there acting oblivious to everything or waiting for them. Just 8 Goblins stood guard at this Castle System. Upon seeing the Vestrisians they froze gripping their weapons. He could have sworn one of them soiled themselves when they raised their rifles on the Goblins. All eight of them dropped their weapons, surrendering to the Vestrisian invaders. Baralai had the job of apprehending these small, big eared humanoids whom could have at least bathed in the morning. Forced to question them he learned the castle system was locked and the keys were with the local lord. That local lord was long gone. Having to force the gate open they built a bridge to cross over the motte. It took a while, but they managed to get across and lower the draw bridge. Just three Goblins were in the castle system. Each one were found a sleep or in a corner scared out of their minds. To them the invasion of Vimasdra had come, and the Vestrisians came to massacre them all. One type of propaganda their VUVR would have to tackle big time. Their mission according to VUVR ideals was simply liberation and pushing the invaders out of Calorn. A pair of half-goblins were also found inside a tower whom had to be dragged out by force. 

Baralai was not ready to simply waltz right inside a castle that once belonged to enemy hands. He and his own platoon of fellow soldiers were sent to search the whole castle system. For much of the day they searched and researched room, chambers, halls, and towers until it came to the dungeons. Going down without shaking was hard. He had to take his time with each step almost having to hold one of the more compassionate Lieutenants in his unit. With each step he felt the air leave him and his eyes were wide eyed all the way through a tunnel of stairs. Although there were slots for torches, not a single torch was lit in this castle system. Having to rely on flashlights or lanterns did not help. Baralai was not a coward, but he did fear going beneath the earth. Searching the dungeon they discovered chains, cells, shackles, broken crates, barrels, skeletons of past prisoners, rats, and some tables set up. One side of the dungeon lay most of the furniture shoved against the walls. Broken, splintered apart the discarded furniture obstructed much of the wall. His Captain ordered for them to clear the debris. Baralai took his flashlight and shined some light on the top of the debris. A door frame could barely be seen above  the piled-up debris. 

Making himself think this was just a wonderful day in a friend's cellar or basement he joined his infantrymen in clearing the debris to show a doorway leading to other dungeons. His heart sank for a moment. Going down there even further was demoralizing, but he hid it as much as he could. Pressing forward they discovered two more dungeons, and a tall female in one of the cells. She was left to starve with no clothes to speak of. When she looked up she revealed a tattoo pattern of a Paladin's Order. For several minutes they pulled at the cell bars to set her free. The keys to all the cells were missing. Searching the other cells they found corpses of Gnomes, Dwarfs, Goblins, and Humans. Getting the Paladin out the Vestrisians gave her some clothes to wear and food. She scarfed it down explaining the story of how she got lost in Vimasdra. Her travels started in Ossus from Arqolith. She did not want to take part in any of this conflict, which was why she was locked away in here. As she finished her meal the Paladin told them why she was here. Some village in Vimasdra was attacked by zombies. It was her duty to fight the undead that were created by necromancy and other horrifying sciences. Some soldiers chuckled finding this amusing. It had been well over a thousand years since zombies or the undead roamed Vestrisan lands. 

Not buying her story a Major had her apprehended and taken in to see Colonel Vyskon, Colonel Winterz, and General Paskall. None of them really said goodbye to this female Paladin from Arqolith. They began setting up base inside the castle system. Although Baralai and his own unit did not have the task of clearing out the bodies, he still resented hearing about it. For him and his fellow members of the 166th Infantry they had to move the line further. They heard various rumors and reports about a junkyard being found near a house ruin. A bit of resistance occurring up and down the line. Someone overheard they took out an estimate of 200,000 Vimasdrans, aliens, and collaborators. While listening to this, Baralai could feel it in his gut they fought far more collaborators defending Vimasdra. It was their homeland, yet the V.U.V.R. had a mission to oust the invader from this world. Another rumor entered his ear about 3 soldiers taking out a unit of 91 aliens up north. Walking on the grass with vehicles in between them Baralai spotted a tree some soldiers walked all the around. It was as though they were either drunk or saw something much bigger to move around. Even a few vehicles moved around the perimeter. Breaking away from the group he rushed over to the large tree. Getting closer he noticed a beehives nest hanging above a double-bladed axe and a bag overflowing with coins. A score of soldiers passed him when he saw the barrier around the tree marked by pillars, spears, and swords sticking up with the blades facing outward.  Someone or a group placed these swords, spears, stones, and spiked metals around this tree for a reason centuries ago. 

Rain began to come down on them as the clouds covered the sun. Rushing for cover some soldiers ran for that tree only to find five beehives full of angry bees swarm them. He could not help but laugh and chuckle while putting on his own rain poncho. The rain did not stop for him to put it on. Pressing onward over the course of two days they ran into small pockets of resistance. Lives of 868 Vimasdrans died in their attempts to stall the Vestrisians. On the third day of their advance the 166th fought off a counter attack consisting of 60,0000 desperate Vimasdrans. A total of 50,865 had to be killed or put down. The rest had to be shipped off to Bisdolan immediately after apprehending them as prisoners of war. Not much was heard from the north, or the south. Other than hearing their forces getting stalled, they heard confirmed reports of success across the board. Passing by towns, villages, dwellings, and cities they spotted smoke rising from places their bombers and aircraft dropped their bombs. Apparently rain did not hit those spots. On their guard, and eyes peeled they watched for any resistance. Baralai did not know how many they lost or how many wounded casualties they suffered. That was not his job. His job here was an infantryman who pushed the advance and secured a foothold with his fellow brothers in arms. Another full day passed before they saw any more action. Most of the Vimadrans either fled, were forced to stay, or pulled back. Such information given to them would have gotten civilians shot for treason. Yet each one spat at the invading Vestrisians. He could not blame them, but kept his thoughts to himself. Were the Vimasdrans already brainwashed to support the Nazdar as their slaves? He hoped it was not the case. Were these Vimasdrans sick of being invaded almost back to back nearly thirty or more years apart? 

While relaxing on a couch inside a commandeered home, he learned of a nasty rumor. Somewhere up north, near Bisdolan 57, Gnomes, 104 Goblins, 304 Half-Goblins, and 90 Orcs were found on the ground. Half of them were dead, some nearly dead, others unconscious, and the rest lay wounded in the puddles of blood. It sounded like Vimasdrans and Bisdolans were fighting each other in coordination with this invasion. Listening even further he learned this was more of a turf war between guilds, and gangs the Nazdar chose not to deal with. Trying not to think about all of this, Baralai focused on his job as an infantryman. The very next week the 166th and southern invasion force fought another Vimasdran army. Some 53,375 or more Vimasdrans died in the fighting. The rest melted away further into Vimasdran country, and close to ten thousand were taken prisoner. Although they appeared to be the invader thus the villain here in Vimasdra, his fellow Vestrisians did their best not thinking about it. For sixteen full days the Vimasdrans stepped up counter attacks. If he counted the number of dead Vimasdrans who died attacking them he would have it at 211,568 killed. As for wounded, and taken prisoners the number would be 123, 412. Transporting them was not trouble at all. Just keeping them from taking their own lives was the problem. For three days they had to keep as many of them alive while 47, 517 Vimasdran soldiers took their own lives. Forced to shackle them up the Vestrisians sent them off to V.U.V.R. territory by truck. A couple of more days passed before anything else happened. Some of the locals had to go on about their lives with the Vestrisians occupying their lands. 

During their occupation of what they took rumors of how their own air force took out much of Vimasdra's air force. It was rendered useless, and the pilots drank themselves to oblivion. That changed when over 1,000 Vimasdran aircraft launched an attack on the Vestrisian invading forces. Intercepting a bulk of this force was another wave of 1,000 Vestrisian aircraft. He could barely tell what aircraft were in the air as he he was forced to take cover. A few hours passed when the air raid died down. Counting their losses they called it a victory as the Vimasdrans lost most of their force and fled westward. Their losses were minimal, however the death toll on civilians was heavy. These Vimasdrans branded them dead already since the propaganda said the Vestrisians were here to kill them all. Some time in the night they received company in the form of rebels. One company of 121 rebels formed within the bowels of Vimasdra who sought to get rid of the Nazdar masters, who ruled over Vimasdra. All of these rebels were archers, bowmen who had no access to rifles until now. Feeling generous their commanders handed over T.M. 13 rifles, 7mm smgs, Gorine pistols, and early versions of the E-7 rifles and Optimates. 

One full month passed with more miles between them and Bisdolan increasing had them engage small pockets of resistance and fully manned forts. Rather than occupy the forts they burned them to the ground. It was more of a sign the days under Nazdar rule were numbered. Baralai could already tell this would bite them in the ass hard. He kept his thoughts to himself. When high command heard of this they simply had the General sacked and replaced with a Field Marshal who had them rebuild every fort that was burned. As a gesture of goodwill to the people here she had them start rebuilding. It appeared to be a nice gesture, however the mental damage and hatred were still present. After defeating another wave of Vimasdrans who were shown no mercy by their own, the Vestrisians watched or killed murderers. All across the front they witnessed the Vimasdrans kill any wounded or those who surrendered before retreating back. Dealing with this was going to be difficult as it would expose them to enemy fire if they rushed out to save the wounded enemy's. A fool's way to save a life, but it resulted in many turncoats among the prisoners. Already 30,000 Vimasdrans chose to pick up arms and acted as guides to the Vestrisian units. Many put on the Vestrisian uniform while others put a blue arm band on their left arm, signifying they switched sides. As their advance slowly pushed deeper they met some heavy resistance from 320,000 Vimasdrans, Ossus troops, and Nazdar troopers who tried to pull off a counterattack. It failed, but it did some damage to their lines and forces. Almost a third of their vehicles were lost, and a fourth of their forces were taken out of action. Most of them were wounded, but a good number lay dead in the counterattack. Artillery, and heavying bombing came as the answer to the Vimasdrans, Ossus, and Nazdar who fled 245 miles to escape further bombardment. 

Lucky Baralai and his own unit were sent to check the damage. Going ahead as a scouting force they marched thirteen miles seeing nothing but carnage along the way. He expected to see this, because his own father fought against the Castarians decades ago. Whenever mom wasn't around he would tell stories of the horrors of war, and how it would change a man forever. Looking at the corpses, destroyed homes, shattered trees, and uprooted earth he was already feeling the effects. His eyes scanned the ruins of was must have been a large farm field he spotted a crowd of figures shambling, and shuffled their way to a village. Crouching down he and his unit cautiously approached the scene of nearly 200 figures entering a village in a stumbling walk. Baralai's first thought was a bunch of villagers suffering from the effects of the bombing and slow people trying to escape them. Stepping a little closer they all heard screams of terror emit from the same village. Moments later the whole village was emptied of people running for their lives while scream with fear. His unit paused for a few moment to comprehend what was going on. Before their very eyes the same shambling figures attacked some villages armed with weapons. Some went down, but the rest overwhelmed the villagers. Baralai's mind almost shattered as a these shambling people sank their teeth into the villagers they caught. Flesh was torn off by hands and teeth. Feeling himself shake a little he raised his own rifle and opened fire on the shambling figures. His fellow Vestrisians rushed inside the perimeter of the village killing 192 zombies that attacked this village. Unsure if the ones who were bitten were okay or would die from the bites, they took the lives of 257 villagers. Just 257 of these villagers were bitten by these so called zombies. He heard of zombies before, but never witnessed a horde of them attacking people like this. 

Reporting this to HQ wasn't going to be easy. Many of them could not speak because of the horrors gripping them. Even Baralai could not make a normal expression on his face until they came to their sense after a few days. This forced their commanders to send another patrol and report back what they found. To the commanders it was not a pretty picture. The full scale invasion of Vimasdra was a success, but securing the whole of Vimasdra was going to be a long arduous road for the 1 million Vestrisians who entered this land.