Sigh
In a pitch black room, light was only visible from an array of screens projected on a large wall.
A gruff looking middle-aged man glared at the screen, he was taller than average, his hair was jet black with hints of greying, neat in some places, disheveled in others, giving him a mature but slightly wild aura.
Head buried in his hands, countless scenarios running through his head, each one mind numbingly complicated, trying to find just a single one where the outcome was desirable.
Looking at the complicated graphs and numbers outlining the war situation, scribbling notes down on his pad, trying to come up with solutions to problems that were coming in faster than he could solve the previous ones.
Essentially, the situation wasn't good. The live feed was showing the relentless barrage of issues from the three main warzones:
The capital city of Tharsis was located within the great plateaus of Tharsis Rise, to the North, a naval battle was occurring. This was where humanity was faring the best in this war. In general, the Veritarii offence wasn't very focused on attacking from the seas, and furthermore, they were very well equipped to defend that area anyways.
There were two gigantic naval forts North of city, one located on the Alba Mons dead volcano directly North of the city, and another built in the plateaus of Tempe Terra, which was to the North of North-East.
The naval bases contained state-of-the-art canons, lasers, defenses, all powered by enhancements from priests of The Flame Father.
To the East of the city was the Arabia Terra. Although the situation was nowhere near as good as the naval front, they were still holding on. The high elevation, natural fortifications, and the limited access routes that stifles movements of Veritirii soldiers provided a good balancing to how far their army outclassed the humans.
But to the South-West… much more isolated than the other regions that were bunched up near the capital city, was the Argyre Basin, where the situation was the worst.
The man staring at the camera was wearing a decorated black coat, with patterns along the sleeves, an insignia of a two flaming swords crossed together, tied together by a steel chain on his upper-left chest area, and a large collection of badges attached to the uniform.
He let out another sigh, this one even deeper than the last one. It was becoming a habit.
He cleared his mind and began assessing the situation again from the beginning.
Our situation is by far the worst.
The Argyre Basin was far more isolated than the others. The land it had to defend was much larger, not only that, it was a large plateau, allowing for easy unit deployment. The Veritirii base was also located on the other side of the plains, in the Hellas Basin.
This meant that the amount of soldiers that they could send out at once was much, much more than at the other battlefields. Not only that, they were able to deploy their tanks and warplanes on this battlefield.
It would be one thing if their soldiers were outclassed, but the Veritirii also had their hands on relics that make a lot of our technology redundant.
Overall, they were completely outclassed on this front, which was arguably the most important one. If the Veritirii army got past this point, it would be a straight March to the most exposed region of the city. Worse than that, it would leave the divine coliseum exposed.
The front was on the verge of collapse. Recently, one of their bases on the right flank was completely wiped out, with no survivors left.
A look of sentimentality flashed across his face.
That girl, her cohort was located there weren't they?
How disappointing, her future was so promising, but he had sent her to her death.
He did not linger for long though, in his position, being responsible for the deaths of inspiring and talented individuals was nothing new, all he could do was keep their sacrifices in memory and do his best to pay their enemies back tenfold.
As he was deliberating what to do, alarms began blaring, red lights flashing throughout the base. His assistant stormed into the room
She dispassionately thumped her right first on her chest and executed a perfect bow.
"General Tullius, 'Blade of Aethra', I bare news sir."
He groaned at her tone. How many times do I have to tell her?
"You don't have to say my full title every time, what's the news?"
"Our sensors have detected an unidentified intruder entering our camp, we don't know how they managed to get into the base, but we believe they-" a slight frown formed on her face, though it was so subtle and quick that some people might think they were just imagining it.
She shortly paused.
"We believe they rolled down." She said, a deadpan expression on her face.
He raised an eyebrow what could possibly get her tongue stuck?
She continued on with her report.
"We'll be closing in on them shortly, oh, and by the way — they're wearing Veritirii armour…"