This was a battle that occurred in my GATE-inspired storyline where the US invaded the fantasy world of Latoria and set up colonies. The idea behind this battle was that when there are modern military vs fantasy armies, people only talk about medieval footmen and dragons, but I thought of the idea of soldiers fighting literal ghosts.

The Silent Harvest

The Silent Harvest was one of the US's first defeats in the Avalon War; the command had prepared for threats of giant monsters, sorcerers, and medieval armies, but they didn't expect this.

The 3rd Expeditionary Platoon from the Bravo Company, led by Brigadier General Marcus Hale, ventured into the Gamana Mountains.

Their main goals were:

• Establishing a permanent observation camp.
• Secure the area for settlement and extraction
• Gain intel on any hostile indigenous

As they traversed the terrain, soldiers reported sightings of what they assumed were people, which appeared and then faded in and out between the trees. However, when they sent drones out to look for dangers, nothing of note came up.

At approximately 2300 hours after setting up camp at the near top, perimeter alarms triggered in rapid succession across the northern treeline. Multiple personnel reported that rapid movement is inconsistent with known wildlife and sound anomalies such as moaning and whispering.

Thermal optics produced inconsistent readings. Night-vision systems experienced intermittent static interference. Moments later, unidentified entities breached the north and south sides of the camp.

It turned out that the Gamana Mountains were home to spirits, and not happy ones. Before the tribe, many of the indigenous tribes near the mountains warned the soldiers of the possible threats, but the way they described it sounded more like dangerous animals. General Hale specifically readied his men to fight the dangerous animals.

These spirits, however, were near intangible, and if bullets did hit them, they'd shrug it right off. The soldiers were in pure freak-out mode. Hale managed to get some control and ordered the soldiers a full evacuation back to the foot of the mountain. The soldiers made an orderly retreat, trying to escape from the spirits.

But in the panicked descent, General Hale ran into a Climbing Hunger, a species of plants that slowly move to the spot with the most sunlight like an ape, and bumping into one can cause its vines to strangle him. The recovery team found him 27 feet from the encampment, and an autopsy confirmed he died 90 seconds after entanglement. Half of the platoon had died off to the spirits, and the survivors descended into the woods. Where they were soon attacked and captured by guerrilla fighters.

It was a minor defeat for the US as they quickly learned from this. Later, troops were better prepared and had local guides providing charms and protection.

The Gamana Spirits are a mysterious group of ghosts that reside in the mountains, and the Taleki Bard-Clans believe that there used to be a city that resided at the top of the mountains, but an Atlas Step (their word for earthquake) led to the city crumbling away and everyone there dying gruesomely. This theory checks out, as later, better-prepared troops reported seeing crumbled buildings and an abandoned castle when they reached the encampment.

Studies showed that these spirits only show up if they detect the presence of a sentient being, which was why the drones didn't pick up anything, because the spirits didn't detect any real presence. Spirits are also vulnerable to shadow magic, a form of magic that Woodland Elves use to fight the spirits in the Garundo Woods.

As such, US troops would be paired with sorcerers from the Obisdion Coil (a Sorcerer Clan allied with the US) as protection in areas with reports of paranormal activity.

What do you guys think of this?