A Helping Hand

After the human armies had retaken the Fertile Plains, they took a brief pause to consolidate their new conquests. Railroad tracks were built up to the new frontier and fortifications were set up at Starfall City and Arrieta. However, there was no intention to stop.

The demons were dealt a great blow, but they weren't finished yet. The army would continue to move west and battle against the remainder of the demon forces.

Jack's regiment was one of the ones tasked with being in the advance group. For several weeks they made slow and steady progress. They came upon small groups of demons and annihilated them. Slowly but surely, they took land in small chunks while the support group would move in behind and start building fortifications and rail links.

So far, their progress was without incident. They had great success in clearing out the roving bands of demons and they didn't take too many losses. In the case that a large group was spotted by the airplane scouts, they would retreat and link up with others before fighting.

In the past, such an arrangement might have been unwieldy and prone to miscommunication leading to poor coordination. However, each of the regiments had been issued a radio to keep in contact with the overall commanders which allowed them to have swift communication with the other units. As a result, the human armies were able to operate effectively.

For the past few days, Jack's group hadn't been met with any demons. It was quite odd. They had expected to have met some resistance, but there didn't seem to be any. Something was up, so they were being extra careful.

Suddenly, movement was spotted up ahead. Everyone quickly stopped and readied their weapons. As they stood in formation, it became clear that the thing approaching them weren't humans, but they didn't seem to be demons either.

The approaching group looked completely different from what had been seen of the demons so far. So either this was a never before seen type of demon, or it was a new species. The creatures had skin that was a mixture of blue and green in color. They had eight arms and two legs. They seemed to be equipped with melee weapons, as well as what looked like crossbows. Still, the weapons looked a lot different than anything that the humans had ever seen.

Initially, the soldiers were a bit hesitant on what to do, but the commander quickly decided that since they weren't human, they probably weren't friendly. Still, they waited to see what the strange creatures did before deciding whether to attack.

For a few moments, the two sides studied each other. Then the new group of creatures attacked.

Quickly, the order was given for the mortars to fire. Particular care was given to take out the ranged enemies first. As the mortar shells landed, these strange creatures were blown apart. The remainder became more infuriated and continued to charge toward the humans.

Once they got within range of the guns, the real slaughter began. Machine guns spat out bullets at a rapid rate, mowing down the incoming horde. Jack was firing his trusty rifle. By now, he was much better than he was back when he was still a rookie. His aim had improved greatly and his shots usually managed to hit, though he couldn't really control which part of the body it hit.

The battle was swift and it was clear the creatures had not expected strong opposition. This marked the first contact between humans and the race which would be called the Sky-Sea people.

Elsewhere, the rest of the human army had engaged the Sky-Sea people. With the demons that once served as a buffer between the two races now removed, humans and the Sky-Sea people came into direct conflict.

The conflict wasn't only on the ground, it was also in the air. The planes flew around scouting out the area. The planes provided intelligence on the movements of both the demons and the Sky-Sea people.

Eventually, the planes had ended up clashing against the air forces of the Sky-Sea people. The Sky-Sea Realm had air power that was much more advanced than what the demons had. There were large sh.i.p.s that were floating in the air through some means yet unknown to humans. It was suspected that it had something to do with magic.

The large sh.i.p.s were rather well armed as well. Although they didn't have guns or cannons, they had their own version of ranged weaponry. Fortunately, it was much less effective compared to guns. When their sh.i.p.s came into contact with the planes, a fight started.

The planes were much faster and much more maneuverable than the sh.i.p.s and the planes had better weapons. However, the sh.i.p.s were much more durable and they also had a much larger quantity of weapons. The planes would require a lot of time and effort to take down a ship, and doing so was quite risky.

Ultimately, it was decided that the planes should not directly engage the sh.i.p.s and instead they should try to avoid them. The primary purpose of the planes was still reconnaissance so it wasn't necessary for them to end up in pointless fights.

With the revelation of the new enemies, the armies of Neverwinter and Hermes were ordered to stop advancing and hold position while more information was collected on the enemy. It was clear that the Sky-Sea people had much stronger aerial capabilities, but the full extent of the strength of their ground forces wasn't clear.

The encounters the humans had with the Sky-Sea people were only small skirmishes and thus neither side had utilized any of their heavy weaponry. The humans didn't have a good idea of the capabilities of the Sky-Sea people, unlike the demons which they were familiar with.

The current plan was to have airplanes scouting out the area. They would come across battlefields where the demons and the Sky-Sea people were fighting to gain information. The pilot would fly and the other person would have a telescope available to see the details of the battle. In this way, information was collected about the technologies of the Sky-Sea people and their battle tactics.

Over time, a clear picture of the war emerged. There were several battles going on between the demons and the Sky-Sea people, but it was clear that the demons were being pushed back. The planes had spotted a large army of the Sky-Sea people headed to what was the largest demon city ever seen. It was clear that soon the decisive battle between the Sky-Sea people and the demons would occur.