Following the roads, they would be in Deutschland's capital in less than 12 hours, already having driven 2 hours. Once they got to the capital, they would have to find Deutschland's commander-in-chief or just burn the city. They had to hurry to the city. They couldn't give the Deutsche any more time to set up fortifications.
If they could force a surrender as soon as they got there, that'd be ideal. Because of the news of the escaped POW's, missing supplies, and ruined factories, Deutschland must at least be scared. The smart play for Schmitler, the Deutsche commander in chief, at this point would be to surrender.
After the battle had been won, UPC trucks came to pick up the soldiers, and now they were driving over to the Deutsche capital, Birlin. If they could drive non-stop, they would be there before the day was over, but they would eventually have to get more gas for the trucks about halfway through the drive.
Magnus sitting in shotgun while the General drove the truck.
"So how'd you do it?", the General asked, not taking his eyes off of the procession in front of him.
"Do what?", Magnus asked, looking at the General without the gaze being returned.
"I mean I know how you did it, but I want to hear from you how you did it. How you didn't get captured and won us that battle.", the General said to Magnus. The General could see everything happening on earth, as it was his domain, but he wanted to hear the first hand account.
"Well, it really started with me being to materialize Amicus, and after that I just gathered an army. I went around bolstering my ranks with POW's I found. They hadn't been fed very well, but they could do their jobs.", Magnus said, Amicus now residing in Mangus' mental space.
He continued, "After I got enough men to fight off the Deutsche forces, it was just a matter of supply, and that was fixed after I found that storage facility. Once we were ready to go, we went. We just went to the front line and attacked where we knew there was going to be an assault.
"We knew there was going to be an assault from radio transmissions we heard over the UPC channels. We found the radio in the storage building, by the way. Then, we went and attacked, and we won, and here we are.", Magnus finished, with an awkward silence ensuing.
The General burst out laughing, and Magnus had to put a hand on the wheel to keep the truck in the line of UPC forces.
"That's great! Magnus, you're great! You know, I should send you over to Chugoku! We need all the help we can get fighting the Empire of Oyashima! It's settled, I'm sending you over to the Far East!", the General said, finally stopping laughing and able to drive again.
Magnus was confused. He wasn't done yet? But he just drove Deutschland to surrendering! And it was winter was starting. Well, at least the winters in Oyashima were better than in his home state.
Really, Magnus wanted to go back home and get married. He was hoping his fiancee was still waiting for him and he also wanted to see his family again. He had been away at least 4 months, and he had been through a lot.
Magnus' eyelids felt heavy as he thought about home. His brothers and sister, his friends, his mother, his step-dad. The sun was overheard, but the daylight didn't stop Magnus from dosing off. He was spent from fighting the battle and his mind needed to rest, as he had healed himself an exponential amount.
"Magnus!"
"Magnus!"
Was someone shouting to him? Was it a dream?
"Magnus!", someone shouted as he was shaken awake. It was Russel, the General's AI. Things had gotten awkward between them after that had come to light, but after some time away, things were beginning to become normal between them again.
Russel no longer had that look of worship in his eye, but he did have a look of friendliness on his face.
"Magnus, we're here. The General wants you to be part of the force that invades the city."
Magnus understood and didn't ask any questions. It was nicer, he thought, to be lower on the totem poll. He didn't have to worry about the lives of his men anymore.
10 men had died in the course of the battle, about 17% if his entire force. This was already troubling Magnus' conscience, but it would get better with the more expirience he got leading.
Magnus got out of the car and stretched. Magnus grabbed a flashlight and walked through the dark and approached a group of 50 soldiers, all well equipped. Based on the fact they were all equipped, he assumed this was the invading force.
A quartermaster handed Magnus a full backpack, and more magazines for his gun. Magnus was going to be using a UPC automatic rifle instead of a Deutsche one. He put one of the magazines containing 30 rounds in the gun and cocked it and put the saftey on.
The leader of the task force said to the 49 other soldiers, "We need to get in the city and locate Schmitler. If we can't find him, we need to find anyone with the authority to surrender. We will be going in if our diplomatic mission fails. As soon as the diplomats get back, we go in."
Magnus asked, "What do we do if we don't find anyone with the authority?"
The leader responded, "We get out of the city. That's the cue for the burning of the city to commence."
Magnus understood his mission. He was no longer sympathetic to those he killed. The quantity of lives he had taken had numbed him to the experience of feeling guilty. He still prayed for the dead, but would not hesitate any longer, as it was the nature of war.
They would go in any second. The diplomats were supposedly coming back. Then ten minutes passed. Then thirty had gone by, with no diplomats returning. Magnus looked at his watch, barely being able to read it with the dim light of the lantern.
It was 02:00 and the diplomats still hadn't returned. Then a truck drove up. They were finally back. For them to take so long, something must've gone right. Then a Deutsche soldier opened the door of the truck, and threw a grenade.