Another Worldly Summons

Chapter 96: Grail's Lair

300 meters above the Sea of Arakal, skimming at subsonic speed, five Vanguard Galleria VTOL attack aircraft fired their missile pods, pouring out dozens of high-explosive projectiles flying at over Mach 2 towards their burning target - the port city of Tuareg. They streaked menacingly, veering off and splitting left and right as they ascended at a rapid pace.

After reaching a certain altitude, each aircrafts two enormous missiles akin to cruise missiles hanging under the belly - A total of 10 land attack cruise missiles crept closer to the defenders of Tuareg, dropping them in the air, momentarily suspended, before igniting their propellant and soaring at transonic speed.

As minutes turned into seconds, those missiles soon reached Tuareg, and the barrels of AA guns belonging to the Muish defenders, attempting to protect whatever remained in the burning city, roared to life. Large-caliber timed-fused and VT-fused artillery shells exploded in the air, while tracer rounds from machine guns and light autocannons streamed endlessly toward the near-impossible-to-hit missiles launched by the Annonrials on their defenses. Meanwhile, a few Muish gunboats also opened fire, trying to add firepower in an attempt to prevent incoming attacks, hoping to shoot down at least one.

But to no avail.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

More and more blossoming fires erupted in the city, cries of people, crashing buildings, a burning cityscape with smell of gunpowder, and burnt odors lingered in the air, accompanied by the crackling sound of burning timbers.

Civilians and soldiers alike withdrew and panicked from the city as the Annonrial missiles endlessly poured down from the air, resembling divine retribution from the gods.

It was a shocking experience for the people of Canossa, as Tuareg or any part of the territory had never been a battlefield, let alone tasted actual war in the last century. Fear and despair were plastered on the faces of civilians, while soldiers frantically fired their guns into the air, yet their efforts were not assuring as another volley hit the city. One of the high-rising buildings crumbled to dust, crushing what appeared to be humans from the air. It was a truly horrifying experience for defenders and civilians left in the city.

"Dusk Bringer to Fortress Keeper, Muish major settlement is reduced to dust, reporting few sporadic AA defenses, but no potential decent anti-air capability. Probably the earlier Muish defense was likely a fluke or they've run out of arrows of light, over."

The vanguard leader of the Galleria VTOL attack aircrafts uttered, his pale blue eyes glancing at the helpless city on the ground. He watched another round of air-launched missiles demolishing and igniting the city to the ground. Flames slowly consumed a quarter of the city, and the missile strikes slowly accumulated destruction, enough to cripple its function as a proper settlement. With a large amount of ordnance dropped and infrastructure demolished, leaving them alone with the current situation would guarantee destruction due to the ever-worsening fire situation in the city. The Muish soldiers in his eyes appeared too busy with their manual aiming, seemingly pointlessly trying to intercept their missiles.

Soon, a reply came from their Supercarrier Eigal responded, "This is Fortress Keeper to Dusk Bringer, continue offensive actions and pinpoint their launchers, over."

"Dusk Bringer to Fortress Keeper, I believe additional ballistic strikes on Muish settlements are more than enough to smoke them out," he said, suggesting having their escorts fire another volley. But a prompt reply returned, firm in its response.

"Negative, continue to draw fire and drop your ordinance. Ballistic strikes on something that is already crippled to claim a few lives or buildings are too costly, over," the operator replied, prompting him to acknowledge.