Erich quickly got kitted up in his power armor after paying tribute to the Alfheim Princess. However, unlike his previous deployments. He was not granted the use of the advanced Mk-2 Power armor that the W-7 units normally wore into battle. Instead, he was once more outfitted with a more standard Mk-1 Power Armor, which was worn by all other WRAITH units.

Aside from being bulkier and less flexible than the MK-2 Power Armor, the Mk-1 had inferior stealth capabilities that came in the form of active camouflage rather than a built in stealth field generator, and did not have atmospheric flight capabilities.

Currently, Erich was standing among his new “team”. Which was a group of W-3s, like himself, who were personally selected for these war games to follow Erich’s command. Their orders were simple this time around. They would deploy onto the uninhabited forested world and defend it from the combined might of the Alfheim Dominion and its vassals.

Why was the world completely uninhabited? That is because, until roughly a year ago, the planet was little more than a barren, inhospitable rock. But thanks to Alfheim Terraforming technology, it was now a thriving paradise.

Every one hundred years, the defending faction would be selected by lottery, and would be chosen from among the Alfheim Dominion’s direct vassals. Unfortunately for the Germanic Star-Empire they had drawn the short straw today.

Or perhaps one might say this was unfortunate for the rest of Alfheim Space. Because they had all seen how tenaciously the Germanic Star-Empire had defended their homes against the Naraku Hive fleet. And by now, the ability of the Germans to defend a world against an invading force was considered legendary by the rest of the galaxy.

As WRAITHs, Erich and his team would be fighting from behind enemy lines with unconventional tactics so that they could halt the advance of the enemy forces from reaching the core of the planetary defenses. Which the Alfheim Dominion had built on behalf of their Germanic vassals.

Currently, Erich was listing of all the gear that he and his team were equipped with for the exercises.

“Alright, so, I have been told to make something abundantly clear to you all, though I’m sure it doesn’t really need to be said. For the sake of this operation, all weapons that we would normally use on a battlefield have been modified to have stun features, instead of plasma.

Your rifles, machine guns, grenades, even your **ing combat knives have replaced the usual lethal plasma, with advanced Elven technology that is the capable of stunning a target, even if they are wearing something like power armor.

So, if you get hit in a vital area, you will be immobilized, and if that happens, you are considered KIA, and will be removed from the exercise. If, however, you are hit in the leg, or the arm, or any other non-vital area, only that limb will be stunned, and can be treated by our unit’s medic.

The same goes for our enemies. So, I don’t believe I need to remind you, but aim small, miss small. Go for the chest and the head, and let’s take out as many of these **ers as possible. Oh, one more thing, your antiarmor weapons are designed to stun both people and vehicles, so be sure to use them appropriately.

Are there any gear related questions that you might have?”

The drop ship was filled with silence after Erich asked this question, and thus he decided to move onto the next aspect of their mission.

“Alright, good. The moment this drop ship lands, the mission is considered having begun, so keep your eyes open, and prepare to take on the enemy. The only support we will have while out in the field are other WRAITHs. As for everyone else, they will be hunkered down in the fortifications, waiting to make contact with the enemy. Let’s show these cunts why our people are the most feared warriors in the galaxy. Hail victory!”

Immediately after saying this, Erich’s squad of ten WRAITHs raised their arms in salute, and repeated the war cry back to their captain.

“Hail victory!”

—

While Erich’s unit deployed to the forested planet, he had no idea that on the bridge of the Alfheim Capital ship, Princess Celestia Asterion was gazing upon the planetary defenses with a scowl on her otherwise flawless face.

The Germanic Star-Empire was quick to deploy their units to the most strategically viable positions for defense. As talented as an Admiral as she was, she had little experience with Ground combat, and because of that, she had entrusted this operation in the hands of her most capable General.

A Light Elven woman by the name of Velaria. Velaria wore a red and gold uniform, whose pattern was similar to those that would have been worn by British Army Generals during the 19th century of Earth’s history. Except for the fact that she wore a navy blue pleated skirt, with matching stockings beneath, as well as a pair of kneehigh black leather cavalry boots.

This woman was a stunning beauty in her own right and came from a sub-race of the Light Elves. With pale skin, crimson hair, and bright yellow eyes, one would immediately recognize her distinctive appearance from the primary ethnic group of Light Elves.

Velaria had a stern expression on her beautiful, yet heroic, face as she gazed upon the enemy defenses. It was as if she was trying to calculate the best possible chances of success, with the least amount of casualties. It was only after nearly ten minutes of awkward silence. Did she sigh heavily before revealing her thoughts on the matter?

“Your highness, as much as I understand the reasoning behind the lottery, and its supposed fairness. Could you not have manipulated the results to be more favorable to our side?”

Celestia, who had virtually no experience commanding ground forces, gazed upon her most trusted General with a peculiar expression on her face, as she asked the immediate question which haunted her mind.

“Is there no way to emerge victorious?”

In response to this, Velaria sighed once more before speaking of the enemy’s defenses and their own capabilities. 𝒩𝑂𝓥𝑳xt.𝒸𝑂𝑀

“It’s not a matter of emerging victorious. Victory is certain. After all, we have the numbers on our side. But by allowing the Germanic Star-Empire to defend the planet from our coalition, you have turned this into an incredibly costly affair.

As you know, the rest of the galaxy is currently watching these War Games with a vested interest. When we begin losing wave after wave of troops in pursuit of taking this one planet, it will look very bad at our end.

After all, these are the people who fought a war of attrition with the Naraku, and won…. Now, obviously, this world isn’t as well defended as the worlds within the Germanic Star-Empire. But most of these men are probably veterans of the Germanic-Terminus War. Or at the very least, their officers most certainly are. And because of this, they know how to properly defend a planet against superior numbers, and firepower.

Undoubtedly, we will be fighting until the last man is stunned, and they will treat this scenario with the same severity that they had when they were fighting for their own survival….”

Upon hearing her General’s opinions about the Germanic defenses, Celestia suddenly realized she may have **ed up entirely by allowing the Germanic Military to defend the world. After all, the Germanic Star Empire was not expecting to be the defenders in this operation, so all of their infantry were the vaunted Star Marines. Rather than the regular Army Infantry, who they normally used to defend positions.

This meant that every single soldier that was deployed to this mock battle was a genetically and cybernetically enhanced superhuman. One who was born and bred for the purpose of war. It was only now that Celestia had realized her mistake, by not manipulating the lottery in favor of her forces.

After all, the entire purpose of these war games was to show off the strength of the Alfheim Dominion and its coalition forces. This was something that was not easily done against a world full of Germanic Star Marines, Storm Commandos, and WRAITHs. With this in mind, Celestia looked rather flustered as she called out to her most prized General hoping that there was still time to fix this matter.

“Velaria, do we still have enough time to swap out the GSE with another of our vassals?”

Unfortunately for the Alfheim Princess, this was not the case, and because of that, her General sighed once more than she informed Celestia of this matter.

“I’m afraid not, your highness. Even if we could, such an action would be spitting in the face of the lottery system, which has existed long since before you were born. If we were to do that, it would appear that we are favoring one of our vassals over the others. A sentiment which your Royal Mother had done nothing to prevent from festering in the minds of our subordinates.

The way I see it is, this could actually be a good thing… If this turns out as I think it will, then we will be showing our enemies that our war hounds will defend the worlds they are stationed on to the last man, guaranteeing nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory in the best-case scenario. And that might be more of a deterrent than we think….”

Whatever the outcome was of these war games, one thing was certain to Celestia, her mother was going to be pissed!