Continuation of San Mercurio
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A Desperate Retreat
The once-proud Vistaran Royal Army, now battered, bloodied, and humiliated, retreated from the Frechenian defensive lines, leaving behind tens of thousands of dead and wounded.
Generale Riccardo Salvi, once confident in an easy victory, now rode at the head of his broken forces, his steel-clad gauntlet gripping the reins of his dust-covered warhorse. Smoke and ash filled the air, the scent of gunpowder and burnt flesh hanging thick over the battlefield.
Their 120,000-strong army had been shattered, and though tens of thousands had survived, they were now low on morale, short on supplies, and relentlessly pursued by the combined Frechenian-Wallonian-Tresnian coalition forces.
"General!" shouted Colonnello Vittore Bellandi, galloping alongside him, his uniform stained with blood. "We must regroup and prepare for the next engagement! If we keep retreating, we'll be slaughtered one by one!"
Salvi knew he was right. They had to make a stand—but where?
Before he could respond, scouts returned from the eastern ridges, their faces pale with fear.
"General! The original escape route is blocked!"
Salvi's eyes widened. "What do you mean 'blocked'?"
"A Tresnian army—30,000 strong—has moved in from the northeast! They've dug in with artillery and machine gun nests. We're trapped!"
A grim silence fell over the Vistaran commanders.
They had nowhere to go.
The Decision to Hold Ground
Knowing that reinforcements were on their way—240,000 additional soldiers carrying Müller-supplied WWII weaponry—the Vistaran command made a desperate decision.
They would fortify the nearest town and hold it at all costs until either:
Reinforcements arrived to break the encirclement.
The Vistaran fleet crushed the Frechenian ports, forcing a retreat.
The town of San Mercurio, a modest trading hub nestled between rolling hills and thick forests, would be their last hope.
The Fortifications of San Mercurio
The Vistaran engineers and surviving troops worked tirelessly through the night, transforming San Mercurio into a fortress.
Multiple layers of trench networks were dug, reinforced with sandbags, concrete barriers, and barbed wire.
Anti-tank ditches were created, making it difficult for enemy armor to advance.
Church towers, stone buildings, and grain silos were converted into machine-gun nests and sniper positions.
Captured artillery pieces from the battlefield were repositioned on the outer ridges of the town, ready to shell advancing forces.
Booby traps and hidden mines were scattered throughout the nearby fields and roads.
With their remaining 80,000 effective soldiers, the Vistaran forces prepared for a brutal siege.
Salvi stood at the highest point in town, his eyes scanning the horizon.
"They will come for us," he muttered. "And when they do… we will make them pay."
The Coalition's Encirclement
Meanwhile, the coalition forces were already closing in, preparing for a massive assault to wipe out the trapped Vistaran army.
Frechenian troops (140,000) began setting up artillery emplacements around San Mercurio.
Tresnian forces (30,000) established defensive perimeters to prevent any Vistaran breakout attempts.
Wallonian tanks and armored divisions moved into position, preparing for a final attack.
The entire battlefield became a pressure cooker, and the fate of the Vistaran invasion now rested on who would strike first.
The First Assault on San Mercurio
The dawn was shattered by the thunderous roar of coalition artillery.
From the ridges surrounding San Mercurio, hundreds of howitzers and field cannons unleashed a barrage of fire upon the Vistaran trenches.
Buildings crumbled. Trenches collapsed. Entire sections of the town turned to dust.
But the Vistarans held firm.
As soon as the shelling paused, the first wave of Frechenian troops advanced—40,000 infantry, supported by light tanks and armored cars.
The battle for San Mercurio had begun.
A Brutal Urban Battle
The Frechenian soldiers charged forward, their bayonets gleaming under the morning sun.
The Vistaran defenses erupted in fire, as machine gunners, snipers, and rifle squads rained hell upon the advancing coalition troops.
The streets turned into a bloodbath.
Frechenian infantry were gunned down in droves, their bodies piling up in the cratered roads.
Wallonian tanks rumbled into town, only to be met with anti-tank grenades and hidden artillery emplacements.
Grenades, mortars, and rifle fire filled the air as hand-to-hand combat erupted in the alleyways.
The Vistarans fought like demons, knowing that defeat meant total annihilation.
Salvi, leading from the front, personally commanded a counterattack, rallying his elite shock troops to push back the Frechenians from the eastern trench lines.
For a moment—it seemed like they were holding.
But the coalition was not finished.
The Coalition Brings in Heavy Armor
Just as the Vistarans repelled the first wave, a deafening rumble echoed across the battlefield.
From the hills beyond the town, Wallonian heavy tanks—massive, steel-clad beasts—descended upon the trenches.
Shells obliterated entire buildings.
Machine guns tore through the remaining Vistaran defenders.
Coalition infantry poured into the ruins, fighting street by street.
The Vistarans were now outgunned, outmaneuvered, and running out of time.
Salvi turned to his officers.
"Send word to command," he growled. "We need those reinforcements now."
The Countdown to Reinforcements
Somewhere, miles away, 240,000 fresh Vistaran troops were marching toward the battlefield, armed with Müller-supplied WWII weapons.
If they arrived in time, they could turn the tide.
If they failed—San Mercurio, and the entire Vistaran invasion force, would be wiped out.
And with the Vistaran fleet still on the move, preparing to attack the Frechenian ports, the fate of the entire war now hung in uncertainty.
The Fall of San Mercurio
The Battle for Survival in San Mercurio raged on.
The once-thriving town had been transformed into a burning, blood-soaked wasteland. Thousands of bodies lay strewn across the streets, some buried beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings, others charred and broken from artillery strikes.
But the true death knell had yet to come.
Far above the battlefield, in the endless blue sky, a new terror approached.
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The Sky Darkens
High above the ruined town, the air rumbled with the sound of approaching engines.
Admiral Vastar and Koshida Skyler, the Wallonian Supreme Commanders, had made their decision: San Mercurio would be erased from the map.
The coalition forces had halted their advance, giving the Vistarans a brief and false sense of relief. Some even believed the coalition was stalling, hesitant to waste more men in brutal street fighting.
But then, the first bomb fell.
A precision-guided explosive, sleek and silent, sliced through the sky and detonated in the heart of San Mercurio.
A massive fireball erupted, consuming entire buildings and turning the central square into a cratered ruin.
Then came the next.
And the next.
Within moments, hundreds of bombers swooped down, unleashing a hellstorm unlike anything the Vistarans had ever faced.
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The Bombing of San Mercurio
Precision-guided bombs struck hardened trench lines, vaporizing entire Vistaran battalions before they could even raise their weapons.
Massive incendiary bombs turned the town into an inferno, burning defenders alive in their bunkers.
Bunker-buster explosives collapsed entire sections of the fortifications, burying officers and soldiers beneath tons of rubble.
Cluster bombs shredded retreating units, leaving nothing but smoldering corpses in their wake.
The Vistaran anti-air defenses, weakened from constant ground combat, were helpless.
Machine gunners fired blindly at the sky, their bullets bouncing off the bombers' armored underbellies.
Officers screamed for reinforcements—but there were none.
The town had become a death trap.
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The Vistaran Army Collapses
The moment the bombing raids ended, the coalition forces advanced once more.
The streets, once filled with defiant Vistaran soldiers, were now nothing but wreckage and bodies.
Entire battalions had been wiped out before they could fire a single shot.
Vistaran officers, dazed and bloodied, watched their army disintegrate before their eyes.
Survivors crawled out of the rubble, only to be gunned down by advancing coalition troops.
Panic spread like wildfire.
Some soldiers threw down their weapons and fled.
Others, too broken to fight, raised their hands in surrender.
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Generale Salvi's Last Stand
Generale Riccardo Salvi, who had once led his army with undeniable confidence, now stood in the ruins of San Mercurio's command bunker, staring at the flaming cityscape before him.
His officers were dead or captured. His defenses were obliterated. His men were surrendering by the thousands.
For the first time in his life, Salvi felt something he had never known before.
Defeat.
He looked down at his bloodstained hands.
How had it come to this?
All his victories, all his glorious campaigns, all the times he stood victorious on the battlefield—had it all been a lie?
"General…"
He turned.
Colonnello Vittore Bellandi, his last remaining officer, stood before him, face smeared with dirt and blood.
"It's over."
Salvi clenched his fists, trembling. "It can't be…"
"San Mercurio has fallen," Bellandi whispered. "Our men are either dead, captured, or running for their lives."
Salvi turned back to the ruined battlefield.
The coalition flags were already rising over the town's shattered remains.
With a deep breath, he reached for his sword.
But before he could draw it, he felt cold steel press against his back.
He turned slowly to see a Wallonian officer, flanked by Frechenian and Tresnian soldiers, their rifles raised.
Bellandi had already dropped his weapon.
The officer gave a single, sharp command.
"You're coming with us."
Salvi let out a shaking breath, then released his sword, letting it clatter to the floor.
He had no choice.
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San Mercurio Falls – The End of the Vistaran Invasion
The Vistaran army in San Mercurio was annihilated.
Over 70,000 dead.
Tens of thousands captured.
Generale Riccardo Salvi, the man who led the invasion, was now a prisoner.
The coalition forces had won.
But as they secured the town, one terrifying thought loomed over them all.
What of the Vistaran reinforcements?
Far beyond the battlefield, 240,000 fresh Vistaran troops marched toward San Mercurio, their weapons supplied by Müller—and they were not yet aware of the disaster.
And in the distant seas, the Vistaran fleet had begun its attack on the Frechenian ports.
The war was far from over.
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