13. The End

MITESH HAD always known his heritage. He was a descendant of Anand, one of the warriors who had taken part in the legendary battle of Shanghai. Cadets learnt about that battle as a study of tactics, the use of his assets by the Indian commander was brilliant, and the Chinese commander had also performed admirably.
Now however Mitesh had no idea where he was. They had marched for weeks, the route they used had not been worn much, so Mitesh suspected they were not going to the Aztec front, but if they were not going to the Aztec front, where were they going?
His question was answered by the arrival of a new horizon, they were at the ocean. Having reached the summit of a hill they could see thousands of soldiers milling about, and transport units in the distance, Mitesh, his rifle battalion, and- from the looks of it- much of the Indian Northern army were going on a little voyage.
Mao meanwhile was watching a parade from the window of the imperial palace. Yet another rifle battalion was heading south, the battle against the Aztecs was taking a lot of manpower, giving cities away to the English had not helped a great deal, however Mao was pleased to see that the cities which had been yielding him little were now crammed full of riflemen- albeit English riflemen. Meanwhile his scientists had succeeded in producing many new techs, most impressive was the rapid firing mortar, which was proving to be most effective- although prone to overheating. New "light turrets” had also been developed, using mixtures of metals. These promised to pose new challenges for the Aztecs...
Tensions had been growing recently. Whilst there were many outward manifestations of the problem at its heart the problem was simple; Zulu’s and Germans did not get on. They differed in many ways as people, and as cultures. Whilst the threat of the Indo-Chinese alliance had kept them together things were now fragmenting. Mpondo and Frederick both saw they could not stick together, the German-Zulu alliance was finished.
Operation bottleneck as it was called was beautiful in its simplicity. The Aztec forces were ferried across from the icy wastes. Arriving on the “great continent” the forces went to their various designations, travelling swiftly along the railway lines, which, even yet the Allies did not have the technology to build. However, for their all of their technology the Aztecs could not produce units out of thin air. Operation bottleneck involved ferrying units to where the Aztecs landed on the great continent- by doing this they stemmed the flow of reserves, from there the task force could destroy railway lines, and ultimately cause chaos. Simultaneously the Allies would launch attacks on the wide Aztec front line, hoping to spread panic and open gaps. If Allied forces could fortify themselves with their new technologies amongst the mountains then the Aztecs might never remove them.
Mitesh ran out of the transport. The task of his rifle unit was to take the Aztec carriage towards the front line, pillaging the rail as they went. Once they neared the front line they would fortify themselves and prepare for attacks from ahead, or, if the Aztecs had succeeded in bringing reinforcements from the main continent, from behind.
The allies advantage lay in their intelligence. Montezuama had shunned diplomats, which allowed for poor counter-espionage on the Aztecs part. Allied intelligence agencies meanwhile had progressed a lot. Indeed a new type of diplomat had developed; the spy. The efforts of Hannibal, a spy in Anands time would now be considered pathetic to what modern spies could do. This intelligence allowed maps to be stolen so allied forces knew where to go, they also knew enemy troop designations, and finally, they knew the most important information of all, every single command on the great continent was organised through the Aztec town of Myomra, and Myomra was coincidentally the target for operation Bottleneck, it was the city through which all Aztec units from the great continent passed!
Meanwhile a firefight began in Myomra as the two alpine troop units, supported by a tank unit battled 6 units of riflemen, accompanied by mortars and artillery.
The Indian commander surveyed the area in front of him. The Aztec tanks were off in the distance, not wanting to engage the riflemen close, and content to rely upon their heavy firepower. The two units of alpine troops had formed a line in the buildings against him. In the towns grid-like pattern it would be difficult to flush them out. He had a few surprises up his sleeves though. A group of Aztecs were annihilated as the “special unit” opened fire. They had been armed with captured Aztec machine guns!! The Aztec commander ordered his troops under cover as the ramifications of this unit hit him. His troops had lost their advantage.
Meanwhile the Indian commander ordered his artillery and mortars to shell the brick buildings, the Aztec commander watched in dismay as buildings, with his troops insides were slowly destroyed. He had no choice- the Aztec commander surrendured the alpine troops whilst the Aztec tank commander was ordered to flee and link up with other Aztec units, and warn them of what had happened here....
The truce was signed one week later. Assailed from all sides, lacking supplies, reinforcements, and news of their comrades one by one Aztec commanders has surrendured. Montezuama knew he could not keep on fighting, not only had the allies recaptured all the defensible and strategically important locations they had also captured a lot of Aztec weaponry, having his own weaponry turned against him was a thought to horrible for Montezuama to fully grasp. The last Aztec boat left the shattered remains of Myomra for the great bastions of the ice continent, never again to return- they departed as mysteriously as they had arrived.
As Gandhi heard the news of the truce something happened, he reeled on the floor, a pile of ash lay on the floor- to be joined by the body of Gandhi’s advisor who promptly had a heart attack... simultaneously 6 other people died, 6 leaders of state...
They had forgotten why they had been sent there- so the gods had terminated their existence- on another planet, far, far away, the great game began again. Meanwhile- as news of their leaders death reached the populace the empires fought- fought like they had never fought before; where would the battles take them? This time no one knew.

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