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The trip by air only took a few hours, they arrived around midnight local time. Zalatel's fleet merged with 6 other vessels that were already in position at the Jade Pass for a total of 29 warships. Reports across the Brettonian border however indicated that the Brettonians had at least 50% more ships on the other side of the mountains and many more only a short distance away.

As soon as the fleet arrived it descended and troops, supplies, vehicles, and weapons were all lowered to the ground on platforms let down on a system of pulleys. The soldiers and crews were all well practiced in this procedure of unloading the ships quickly. The army assembled on the ground would be 27,000 soldiers in total, along with artillery and armored vehicle support.

Zalatel watched and organized the armies from the bridge of the Arbiter. The actual fighting on the ground would be left to his subordinates.

But the Imperials were not the only ones in the valley. The Brettonians had already begun watching the pass and had traps of their own in place, even if they were less inventive. From in the darkness anyone with sharp enough ears would have heard a metallic click right before being followed with the loud roar of machine gun fire. Several machine guns, hidden in the forest started shooting in the direction of the movement they had spotted. It was dark, so they were not particularly accurate. Instead they just sprayed the entire forest in bullets in the direction of the Imperial line.

The machine gun fire continued for a few moments more, before being finally followed up by several small explosions from grenades launched by mortars somewhere in the forest. Then it all stopped, and there was silence, which could only mean that the real battle was about to begin.

Out of the dark came charging scores of Brettonians in an antiquated bayonet charge. Whenever they spotted what might be an enemy they fired a couple rounds, and then they continued on seeking to chase away the Imperial invaders.

(If you like you can role play out some of the Imperial ground soldiers (other than just mages), or just have Janet attack a few soldiers and we can go from there biggrin )

Zalatel received a note from the radioroom on board his ship, it informed him that the Brettonians had launched their counterattack against Janet's scouting force.

The Admiral nodded and then motioned for the generals gathered around the strategy table to place icons on the large map of the area where the fighting was taking place. "Deploy the first 3 battalions into the pass and have battalions 4 and 5 begin making their way through the mountains to make sure we don't get flanked. Send out a squadron of fighter planes also to provide air support and intel on enemy fleet movements should they decide to use their airships. Keep the rest of our air and ground forces in reserve," Zalatel ordered. The officers did what was needed to get the orders to the troops below.

***

In the dark and chaos of battle no one had really noticed the soldier whom had just disappeared. They instead were too focused on the battle at hand.

Imperial reinforcements were coming up the pass to support the mages and scouts that were clearly heavily outnumbered. It was difficult to see in the forest at night, the only area with any sort of significant moonlight was the single road that ran through the Jade Pass, and both sides made sure to stay away from it for that very reason.

Some of the Brettonians zealously ignored the fact that they were getting shot at and decided to not fire their gun, instead they charged into a group of Imperials and started stabbing at them with their bayonets. 4 Imperials were either dead or dying on the ground in moments and the other 6 tried desperately to try and defend themselves from the 3 insane Brettonians who apparently did not understand what guns were for.

Overhead biplanes flew about, their engines were much more silent than the chaos that was happening below, and so they were not easily noticed by the soldiers on the ground. The pilots were all thankful for not being in the infantry and then kept their eyes pealed for any sign of Brettonian planes or ships silhouetted against the night sky.

The Brettonian yelped as he was pulled by the Vampiric girl child, he was then shot in the chest by the rest of the Imperial soldiers. Now against only one Brettonian they had no trouble defeating the enemy and moving on to find more.

As they started to move off out of the darkness came 2 throwing axes, aimed with deadly precision at Janet's head and chest.

Out of the darkness walked forth 2 men clad in medieval armor. One had 2 more throwing axes in his hands, as well as many more strapped onto his body. The other wielded a cutlass and long knife, both with fist guards. Their armor was colored red on white, with the symbol of a grail held aloft by a hand in gold.

The one with the axes spoke to Janet, "you foolish puppet of the Empire. Go home, this land will never be yours. Staying here will only bring you and your kin death."

The one with the cutlass raised a hand to calm his friend. "It is obvious you are no simple little girl," he said to Janet, "nor are we simple knights. We are the Red Templars of Helm and we shall defend Brettonia till our deaths."

The Red Templars of Helm were well known in the Vampire community, and heard of by many outside of it. They were a Blood Knight Order founded by none other than Valen Gray himself. But unlike most Vampires they all viewed Vampirism as a curse, and they sought to tame the beast that dwelled within them. Though they usually were more like monks than soldiers there were still regarded as very fierce and skilled warriors on the battlefield.

The Brettonians that had been caught by the trap screamed in agony as their bodies were fried by electricity. Their comrades could only watch helplessly, and shoot at the Imperials on the other side. Brettonia was a country that did not have a very large mage corp, unlike that of the Empire and other nations. Magic clashed too much with their belief in honor. Still they had other tools just as useful.

Over head the glow from the electric fence illuminated the silhouettes of the fighter planes from the two opposing sides. They started to shoot at each other, and now that they had a better idea of where the two sides were both Imperial and Brettonian planes strafed the ground with machine gun fire. Although it was still too dark to aim properly the added fire from above was one more thing the soldiers on the ground had to worry about.

***

The Vampire dodged the lightning attack by jumping to the side.

The one with the cutlass said, "I suppose that is our lot in life then, to fight wars for others." Both of the Blood Knights charged at Janet, not worrying that she was a little girl, being a Vampire made her just as much a target as anyone else. The Vampire with the cutlass attacked first, slashing with his sword from the side and stabbing with his long knife from above.