Genoverse I

Stake V - Prepare for war

Onyx stared on in horror, the silhouettes of lines and lines of enemy tanks rumbled forward towards the town.
"Shit!" he whispered, picking up his radio transmitter, "I need all air force units to the town furthest east of Nation, NOW-"

He was suddenly cut off by one of the tanks exploding out of nowhere, before a hunk of metal pummeled into the sand in front of them.
"Nevermind the air support..." Onyx mumbled into his radio device.

A door on the steel vessel was kicked open, and out leapt a blue stick figure as well as a light grey one. Onyx's eyes widened.
"Rocker! Jet! You're still around!?" he exclaimed happily, ignoring the confused stares from the platoon.
"Hell yeah we are!" Jet beamed

Maylz suddenly interrupted them, "I know this is like a reunion or something, but we still have like ten tanks to finish..."
"Right, yeah!" Onyx coughed awkwardly, tugging Jet and Rocker down as a tank shell zipped overhead.
"Legi, can't you use some...I don't know...sorcery?" Calvin asked.
Legi grinned widely, "sure can do!"

Legi started performing strange hand gestures with his head bowed, he swiftly put one hand forward. Then out of the ground, black tendrils darted forth and struck each of the approaching tanks - the others watching in shock and awe.
He continued manipulating the tendrils, even throwing one of the tanks into the air and batting it back into the floor. After a few more minutes of throwing the battered tanks around (if you can still call them tanks) around, he retracted the dark tentacles and nodded proudly.

"I'm surprised I can remember that one." he grinned uncontrollably, tapping his foot on the ground a few times.
Maverick bounced up and down on the spot clapping his hands, "you gotta teach me that one day!"
"Heh, we'll see, otherwise you can go to an Ark academy and be taught by professionals."
"Onyx, I want to take Tom with me!" Maverick pleaded.
Tom shrugged, "I'm down."
Onyx groaned slightly at the thought of losing two great soldiers for a while. He finally made his decision, "alright you two, you can have a year off to go learn...whatever it is."

Tom and Maverick high fived, receiving another grumble from Onyx, Legi patted his shoulder.
"Hey now, I don't take pride in picking favourites, we're all good."
"But Mav and Tom just seem to make it fun," Onyx admitted, crossing his arms solemnly.
Calvin chuckled, "let them have fun, they're still pretty new to the whole war thing."

Tom and Maverick started walking away, excitedly rambling to each other.

Rocker spoke up, "so we lost two members, but me and Jet can take their place," he paused, "so... apparently we're at war with an allied country."
"Ironic, isn't it? We say they get a year off and they've already left... Probably won't see them again..." Legi said. "Now that's called 'no time to waste'."

Onyx opened his phone and dialed a contact named lift to base.
"So let's notch up and get ready for the next attack, we can't let our nation fall."
"I've heard radio messages of an air raid," Maylz said, "perhaps even deploying ground units using their container ships."

***

Back in the Blue Army's fortress, the group sat around a circular table, the tabletop was cluttered with paper of various war vehicles and weapons, maps of strongholds in Nation, and a few estimates of what the enemy was going to strike with.

"So we've collected as much info on the enemy's arsenal as we could without being detected, so far they've managed to get heavy bomber planes and fighters," Onyx announced. "As for ground units, they own what looks like some anti-aircraft (AA) trucks with all sorts of tanks. Fleet power, we already know they have a surplus of motorboats and torpedo ships."

Legi pushed a sketch of the Blue Army's dive bomber planes into the center of the table, "I think we should use our divers to ward off any tanks packed into a small space, it'll also leave minimal damage to our land and make it easier for our infantry to push forward."
Calvin picked up a file of a biplane, putting it on top of the dive bomber sketch. "These ones have turn times of under 20 seconds, we can use these on the fleet and any oncoming stragglers."
"Good, good. We're making a doable plan." Onyx said. "Let's put our heavily armoured tanks in front of infantry, it'll provide them a moving shield. Rocker, Jet, you two have any experience."