With Odysseus and his Earth Golems rampaging against the Orcs, the Liberation Army gained precious time to reload and a chance to counterattack.
About a kilometer away from the main battle, the soldiers aboard the Patrol Boat were close to finishing off the last of their pursuers. The driver skillfully maneuvered the boat and gained some distance from the Orcs on land, easing the pressure on the defenders. Meanwhile, the static on the radio finally began to clear, much to the relief of the Radioman.
"HQ! HQ! This is Patrol Unit 17," he called out urgently.
[This is HQ. We've been trying to reach your team for about thirty minutes. Has the weather been interfering with your comms? Over.] A voice from HQ Command crackled through.
"Thank Allah it's working. Listen, we're under attack. We've got about three hundred-plus tangos and technicals bearing down on us. We need support immediately!" he reported.
[Affirmative. Rolling Strike Package to your A.O. at once.] the voice confirmed. [Interrogative, what caused the communication blackout earlier?]
"I-I'm not sure. Some kind of jamming or interference. We need air support, and we needed it ten minutes ago! Just hurry!"
With a sigh of relief, the Radioman dropped the radio, grateful that help was on the way. He turned to get the attention of the soldier manning the Gatling gun, who had just finished off the last few Orcs who chased them. The gunner's hands, still gripping the mounted weapon, began to shake violently, matching the rhythm of the gun's fierce recoil.
"My God, I ain't gonna do another super shooting from now on, I'm shivering like a bad cold," The gunner muttered.
"Yeah, I feel you, but damn good shooting back there, Old Man. I'll buy you a round when we get back 'kay?" the driver called out, keeping his eyes on the horizon.
"Sure thing. Hey, look over at the horizon! 10 'o clock." The gunner pointed urgently.
All the soldiers on the boat turned to look where the gunner was pointing, and saw black dots were slowly but steadily approaching their position. The driver, needing a clearer view, grabbed a pair of binoculars.
"Oh shit, more greenskins up ahead! And there are hundreds of them!!"
"Seriously! Why is there no intel about this?!" The gunner complained.
"Quit whining and start shooting! We've got bogeys on our six!" the Radioman yelled with tension in his voice.
The gunner, about to steal a moment of rest, suddenly noticed a growing shadow enveloping him.
He spun around just in time to see a weird massive red creature with an Orc rider riding on its back.
"WAAAGH!!" the Orc roared as his mount burst from the water, with his weapon giant flail raised high, and ready to strike the boat.
Bam!
The spiked, metallic ball slammed itself against the steel frame of the boat, and the sheer force of the impact tilted the vessel sideways for a brief, heart-stopping moment with a large dent on its side.
The soldier manning the gatling gun felt caught in a daze by the sheer surprise, the ferocity, and suddenness of the attack. His rough touchdown to the cabin floor was enough to plum his elbows and his cheeks slightly with bruises.
"Dude! What the hell is tha—" the driver began, but his words were cut off as the Patrol Boat was violently shaken back and forth by a sudden, overwhelming turbulence.
"GGGGGAAAAWWWKKKK!!!!" shrieked the strange red sea creature, thrashing wildly as it tried to tear the "armored bone" from the Patrol Boat.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Drive! Drive! Drive!" the Radioman shouted in panic.
The driver slammed the pedal to the metal, and the armored speedboat let out its own mighty roar. With a burst of acceleration, the boat shot forward with the sharp hull slicing through the water. The sea monster attempted to block the boat's path, but was instantly impaled by the speeding steel, killing both the creature and its Orc rider.
"HQ! HQ! Mission Update! We've got more enemies ahead!" the Radioman frantically relayed into the radio.
[Say again?]
"There's another whole army of greenskins chasing us! I need an ETA on that air support and reinforcements," he pressed.
[ETA five minutes.]
"Roger that," he confirmed, dropping the radio. "You hear that? Help's on the way," he reassured the crew.
"They better be! I don't wanna die out here," the gunner muttered.
"Me neither!" another soldier chimed in as the boat sped across the ocean, making a beeline for the seashore.
The Patrol Boat covered the distance to the approaching Orcs with such inhuman speed that even the enemy was momentarily taken aback. But instead of being discouraged by the deceptively uncanny speed of the "metal beast," the Orcs were only more excited and eager to face this otherworldly foe.
According to the Radioman's estimates, the reinforcements would arrive at the Mining Station's doorstep in about four to five minutes.
"CHARRRRRRGE!!!"
"FOOORRR DEEE HOOOOOORRRRDDDEE!!!"
After making their way past the Orcs' corpses and the wreckage strewn across the beach, the Radioman spotted Master Sergeant Dice, who was breathing heavily from the intense battle. Alongside him were the rest of the platoons, including Specialist Sergeant Eurylochus, Odysseus, and his two Earth Golems.
As the Patrol Boat came to a halt near the seashore, the Radioman hurried over to his Commanding Officer.
"Looks like you're alright, sir," he said with a relieved smile.
"What's your report?" Dice asked, cutting straight to business.
"Well, sir, we just—" the Radioman was about to inform him, but was abruptly interrupted by another soldier's shout.
"Watch the skies! They're casting spells!"
Several balls of magical energy made rainfall down on the beach, impacting the ground and exploded in bursts of arcane power. As the dust settled, the soldiers found themselves surrounded by a dome of magical energy. They turned to see Odysseus and his hands glowing with mystical power by the power of the Draconite Crystal in his hand.
"You're welcome," Odysseus said with a hint of pride.
Scanning the horizon, Eurylochus raised his binoculars and spotted a dozen more Orc ships approaching. What shocked him even more were the Orcs literally defying all logic by running across the ocean's surface like a green wave.
"I still don't understand how the hell they do that," Eurylochus muttered. "And they've brought their own mages too. We need to buy ourselves some time!"
"Contact Command. I need an update on the reinforcements," Pice ordered.
The Radioman quickly picked up his radio and tried to make contact, but all he got was more static.
"Damn it, not now!" he cursed, shaking the device in frustration. "You stupid Radio!"
"The magic is disrupting your comms," Odysseus said calmly.
"What?" The Radioman turned to the elf, confused.
"I don't fully understand the 'magnetic waves' you humans talk about or why my own magic doesn't interfere with them, but I suspect the high Mana density around us is messing with your signals," Odysseus explained. "If that's the case, then there's a powerful Shaman among the Orcs, one strong enough to distort it."
"So it's some Orc wizard's fault I've been struggling to reach HQ? Damm, what kind of cruel world is this?" the Radioman lamented.
"Focus, soldier. We need to buy ourselves time," Lieutenant Dice rallied his squad. "How long until reinforcements arrive?"
"Three to five minutes, sir," the Radioman replied.
"Then let's make those minutes count," Dice commanded, preparing his men for the next wave. "Alright, you keep trying to contact Command while we work on slowing down the Orcs. Take the other Riverine Patrol boats too. Priority targets are the enemy mages and hit them with anti-tank rounds! Defensive formations, go!"
"Yes, sir!" The soldiers responded in unison before dispersing.
Eurylochus quickly gathered several soldiers, directing them to board the other three Riverine Patrol boats and man the mounted machine guns. The first armored boat took the lead, with the four Riverine Patrol boats spreading out evenly.
They opened fire on the approaching Orc ships, which responded with crude yellow-painted cannons. But the barrage of armor-piercing .50 caliber rounds from the patrol boats hit first, cutting down several dozens of Orcs before their ammo reserves were exhausted. Despite running out of ammunition, they have done their duty and managed to slow down the enemy's advance.
On the beach, snipers took aim at the Orc ships, and it wasn't that hard to find the Orc shamans as their dark robes and magical staff marked them as targets. Every shot from their rifles met its mark with the sudden and gradual demise of the enemy's combative magical capabilities and defenses, including reducing the interference affecting their radios.
"That's it! Keep it up! I can hear HQ again. Command, come in!" the Radioman called out.
[This is Lieutenant Colonel Ciaphas Cahyono. What the hell is going on out there?]
"Some kind of magic shit is jamming our radios or something. I need the callsign for our airstrike," the Radioman replied.
[Pegasus 3-5.]
"Captain Kardawaiyah? Good to see she's out now," the Radioman said with a hint of relief.
"You know her?" Odysseus asked.
"Yeah, we shared tables together back at Universiti Putra Malaysia in Imperial Tanah Melayu. Great pilot she is, whenever I call in an airstrike, it's always her. Pegasus 3-5, again and again," he explained in a reassuring tone. "She's the best pilot I've seen so far."
"Alright, call it in," Odysseus urged.
"Pegasus 3-5, this is Alpha Company. The Mining Station is pinned down by enemy forces. I authorize a CBU strike on hostiles 400 meters east of our position," the Radioman said, pulling an IR signal beacon from his pocket. He activated it and placed it firmly on the ground.
[Affirmative, Alpha Company. Commencing attack run,] a feminine voice responded over the radio.
"Lase your targets! Give them the beam!" one of the snipers shouted, dropping his binoculars and activating the laser designator on his rifle.
Half a minute later, a squadron of F-16 Phantom fighter jets lined up vertically over the massed Orc fleet.
Leading the air assault, Captain Kardawaiyah inched her hand toward the bomb release button, adjusting her altitude to a mere 300 feet. Some of the Orcs, puzzled by the sight of the strange, gray-colored metal birds approaching them as they turned their heads curiously. They couldn't fathom that these machines could pose any real threat to the mighty ships of the Horde.
"Tucktail!" their general bellowed, urging caution.
"Bomb's away!" Kardawaiyah announced.
"Fox-4! Guns, guns, guns!" her wingman added.
In an instant, they unleashed their payload on the Orc ships, erupting the fleet in a devastating storm of bombs and heavy Gatling gunfire, easily decimating them from a rain of 30mm depleted uranium bullets and fracturing cluster bombs, obliterating the ships and leaving behind a thunderous, inhuman roar as they pass.
Though the F-16s were the size of griffons, they carried the destructive power of dragons within their mechanical souls.
"Puny 'umiez! Mere 'boom' 'booms' won't kill us! We'll fight an' take yer scraps! Charge!!" The wounded Orc Captain, who is missing an arm, bellowed and rallied the surviving green warriors.
With a ferocious roar and weapons raised, the Orcs gave out one last charge in an unbreakable display of their thirst for war and bloodshed. Despite losing an arm and a large amount of blood, none of them appeared to be slowing down, not even stopping whatever Magic they had that allowed them to run across the water's surface.
"No way they're still coming," Eurylochus muttered in disbelief.
[This is Valkyrie 1-1. Reinforcements have arrived,] the radio crackled.
Then, one of the soldiers on the beach spotted not just one, not few, but a dozen warships from the Liberation Navy appearing on the horizon.
Among them was the infamous "ALN Lapu-Lapu", Austronesia's largest aircraft carrier, which carried hundreds of people and dozens of aircraft of various kinds.
A few helicopters launched from the ship and hovered above the battle-weary soldiers on the beach. The powerful downdraft from the rotors whipped the air around them, blowing the dust and sand as Odysseus watched in awe at the overwhelming display of military might.
The next moment, the doors of the helicopters swung open, and fresh-faced soldiers began roping down from the Canaries, while the door gunners unleashed a hail of machine-gun fire to finish off the remaining Orcs.
"We'll fight yer again, 'umiez! An' Jiak da SkullKrusher'll be here to—!" the last Orc roared as he was merely four meters from Odysseus, before being torn apart to swiss cheese by the withering gunfire from the reinforcing soldiers.
Cheers erupted from the humans hunkered down at the mining station for their victory against overwhelming odds finally secured.
As the reinforcements hit the ground, they quickly moved into action, some administering first aid to the wounded, others securing the perimeter and hunting down any stragglers. Odysseus stated they needed to burn their bodies, and they followed his advice as they methodically incinerated the bodies of the fallen Orcs to crisp with flamethrowers to prevent any spores from spreading.
"Sergeant Dice! Sergeant Eurylochus!" came the authoritative voice of Lieutenant Colonel Ciaphas Cahyono as he approached.
"Sir!" Both commanders snapped to attention and saluted.
"Battle report," Cahyono demanded.
"We were ambushed by hostile forces," Eurylochus began summarizing the encounter. "But the problem is that according to Odysseus, what we are facing was just a vanguard and a small force."
"I see, that would be very problematic. We've also been trying to reach you, but the line kept breaking. Do you have any explanation for this poor communication?" Cahyono pressed.
"Sir, it's a theory from Odysseus," Dice explained. "He believes that large-scale outbursts of magical energy can disrupt our electronic communications."
Cahyono frowned. "That sounds preposterous. These radios are state-of-the-art. Can this 'magic' really jam them?"
"Trust us, Colonel," Eurylochus interjected. "You should know that for the past several months, we have seen many things out here that only fantasy writers could dream of."
Cahyono nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Well, perhaps I need to report this to His Majesty."