The next day, they set out to check all of the targets. At each base and outpost, there was nothing but ruins and corpses. Clearly the Empire's Troops had put up a good fight, but it wasn't enough. Taylor's corpse army had disappeared to who knows where, but as soon as she got within 250 meters to each base, she was able to animate all of the corpses in each base and add them to her army. As she did, that started moving north, towards the front lines.
"So we've confirmed that our mission did succeed, what now?" Rebecca asked.
Taylor was silent for a moment before responding. "We keep moving north. My army is on its way there already. We will join them and squeeze the Empire out of the Americas."
"How far till we reach them?" Travis asked.
"Not far, a couple days at the most, but if we move quickly we should reach them by midday tomorrow."
"So we are moving out immediately then?"
"Yes, grab your shit and follow me."
"Last one there buys the others a round once we get back?" Kiara asked.
"You're a god damned alcoholic." Rebecca chided.
"Deal." The Miller siblings responded in unison.
Rebecca was silent for a moment, looking back and forth between the three. "You're all hopeless, but I won't turn down a free drink. Ever."
○○○
They ran pretty much the whole way, only stopping to sleep that night and occasionally wipe out a stray patrol here and there. By 1000 the next morning, they had arrived.
They charged over a hill overlooking the battle field, Taylor in the lead and Kiara just behind Travis, in dead last. What they saw was both amazing and horrifying.
On the far side, their brethren, the troops of the Republic charged forwards with a vengeance. On the near side, Taylor's Corpse Crew (a name she came up with and was very proud of) charged blindly, unchained from worldly worries such as mortality. And in the center, the Empire's troops fought with the fervor of people who knew they would all die here unless they succeeded.
The four stood in awe for a moment, before Taylor looked at Travis. "So, where's the best place to attack?"
Travis closed his eyes, scanning possible futures and their outcomes, then he spoke. "They all have risks, but the best thing would be to strike the middle. If we do it right, we can sow confusion and chaos into their ranks and make it easy for the outside forces to rip them apart."
"So whats 'doing it right'? Cause I vote we should do that." Kiara said
"Here's the plan. We each need to land in a different spot. 4 simultaneous attacks from super soldiers in different parts of what should be the safest area of their formation, instead of immediately going for kills, aim to send as many as you can flying, and clean it up later. We need to make a big show so that their whole army loses hope and tries to avoid us."
"I like demigod better than super soldier, can we use that instead?" Rebecca asked.
"I really don't think nows is the time to be worried about what we are called, but fine four attacks from demigods."
Rebecca chuckled lightly. "Much better, thank you. So do we go now?
"No, we wait 10 minutes, the tide of the battle will start to even out a bit as they get more desperate and ferocious, when that happens, we strike and break their morale completely." Travis said.
"Damn, thats cold." Kiara said. "Can I just say I'm glad you're on our side? I'd hate to be your enemy."
"So we wait. Is there anything else we need to know?" Taylor asked, ensuring the conversation didn't stray from the main priority.
"No, there are no demigods that will show up here, the Kingdom's are tied up in other conflicts, and the Empire's won't be ready for at least another week. So dont worry about that, and if they launch a missile we have greater shield capacity than anything they could launch before the battle ends."
○○○
After the 10 minutes had elapsed, the four launched into battle. Sprinting and jumping either all their might, they sailed over the lines, hundreds of feet into the center of the formation. Travis landed hard, crating a crater 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep. He leaped out, glaive in hand, and went to work.
He swung it around, not caring what part of the weapon connected, one soldier took the handle to her gut and sailed 30 feet away. A quick glance around showed that he wasn't the only one playing baseball. Soldiers went flying in every direction.
Kiara and her hammer were particularly effective. Every swing of her hammer sent at least 5 soldiers flying, often times more. As the four continued to cause mayhem, the enemy did exactly as Travis foresaw. They panicked, and tried to run away from the monsters in their center ranks, straight into the arms of the waiting armies.
○○○
It took three hours until all of the soldiers were killed. Even being demigods, they were exhausted. They all met up and jumped in the back of a truck so they could head back home.
"That was brutal." Kiara said, leaning against Travis.
"It was our Cannae. And its better to have that happen than lose a bunch of our guys in a long drawn out confrontation." Travis said.
"What's everyone's numbers this time?" Rebecca asked, laying on Kiara's lap.
Taylor sat down and leaned against Travis' other side. "Rebecca, you had 1,800, Travis you had 1,930, Kiara 2,140, and I had 5,237."
"Bull shit!" Travis yelled.
"Yeah there's no way in hell you had more than double everyone else's numbers." Rebecca agreed.
"All of my minions kills count for me. I'd have almost 20,000 if we were counting all the bases too, but I decided to be fair."
"Well, at least Travis is buying my drinks again. This is the second time he's paying for my night." Kiara teased, elbowing Travis in the gut.
"Yeah yeah, I'll get you one day though."
"You keep telling yourself that future boy."
And with that, they headed home. Received to have survived their first fight.