《Modern Military System》 1 Dark Comes after Ligh Orange colored sky with a sunset in the middle, an open ocean with endless water. There was a ship in the middle of it. A white ship with an emblem that showed the might of the royal family. In the middle of the ship, a teenage boy was standing still while enjoying the sunset with his hand crossed. He wore a green coat with a white shirt and black trousers. He is the son of a duke that will be getting married to the princess of a country. His name is Lawrence Sharrington. A boy with dark brown hair, average build, and a semi-muscular appearance. "Hey there, boy, your big day is coming soon, isn''t it?" The captain that was holding the wheel of the ship shouted to him. Lawrence turned his head backward and saw the captain shouted to him. He walked to the captain. With the sea breeze that''s made a beautiful voice like a singing angel, the conversation with the captain started. "Yes, in fact, when we will arrive at the port?" He asked him in a manner. Not really surprising since he was raised as a nobility. Studying for ten years in nobility based school seems to be enough to make him learn the basics of manner. "With this kind of wind?" The captain said as the ship was in full sail. "Probably about two or three days," He said with a sailor accent that was very natural coming from his mouth. "Well, Captain, best regards, the dinner will start soon," He said as he left the captain alone on the wheel of the sheep. He walked to the interior of the ship and walked to the dining hall. The dining hall where his family and several famous people of the kingdom gather. There were several people in the table, the most noticeable one was his parents. His mother wore a blue satin dress, and her father wore a lime coat and a white shirt. The others were his friends and his father''s landlord. He sat between his mother and his father. The sailor turned on another lantern; thus, the interior of the ship was shining with an orange light from the fire on the lamp. His father stood up and hit the glass several times with a spoon; thus, several people looked at him. "Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention?" His father asked him. The whole guess mouth went shut, and his father started to talk, "Thank you for coming to this dinner event to celebrate my son''s marriage with the daughter of the king itself. It''s been a joy to raise her into an honorable man like the way he is now." Lawrence was a bit older in terms of mental age than the average person that has the same age as him. He had known the cruel fact of living as a nobility. Everything turned into something political from playing with someone of his age until eating together with someone of his age. As soon as his father let him eat the food, he ate the food as fast as he could. When the others were talking about him, he headed first to his cabin. Lawrence was pretty smart at hiding his emotion, some people might say that he is a flat face. He took off his shoes, then laid down on the bed. He looked up to the lantern that was hanging on the ceiling of his cabin. His head was filled with many thoughts. He didn''t love the princess. The fact that she is a princess doesn''t change the fact that he didn''t like her. He brings the pillow on top of his head, and tears started to fall from his eyes. Why do I have to marry her? Why do I have to marry her? He cried until the sleepiness got the better of him, and he fell asleep. Midnight BOOM A massive explosion could be heard from the middle part of the ship. He woke up and ran outside his cabin barefooted. Several sailors were on stand by on the cannon of the ship. They loaded the cannonball and put some gunpowder inside of it and fired it. He continued to run, and he saw a hole in the hull of the ship. It penetrates so far that the cannon hit his parent''s cabin. In a panic, he ran to his parent''s cabin to find that a blood pool had been formed in their room. In shock, he shook his parents and used a healing spell on their body, but to no luck, nothing happened. His parents were laying down in the bed full of blood and the fragments from the cannon. With bloody hands, he closed their eyes with a tear that was falling down from his eyes. Still barefooted, he ran in desperation to the captain''s cabin. He opened the door and such luck that he found the captain. Full of blood and a knife was stabbed into his heart. He tried to wake the captain up and used a healing spell on him, but the same case as his parents, nothing happened. "FUCK," he shouted as he grabbed the captain''s sword and left the captain''s cabin with a sword on his left hand. He got out of the captain''s quarter, and he found several people that looks aggressive. They were holding a flintlock pistol, blunderbuss, and their boss on top of all was dual-wielding a rapier. Their boss slaughtered every guard that was guarding the ship with his rapier. When someone with a musket tried to shoot him, he grabbed one of the guards and used him as a meatshield. His goons had far worse skill than him, but that didn''t matter since he was coming to Lawrence. Lawrence''s hands trembled when he was facing that pirate''s boss that was wearing a hood on his head. He swung his sword at the boss''s direction, but he parried it with his rapier and kicked him in the nuts. He dropped his sword in pain, and the boss bashed his head to the railings of the ship and threw him to the open ocean. He tried to swim back to the ship, but the moment he decided to, the ship exploded and leaving him and the pirate''s ship as the only survivor. The pirates used him as target practice, and he swam away as far as he can. He knew that he will die, but he didn''t know when. He swam further and further from the sinking ship. At one point, he reached an island. An island in the middle of nowhere that had no inhabitants at all. He looked for a place to sleep, but he didn''t find any. He walked around the beach with a dull sensation on his left foot. 2 Killing Lorax Lance started his chainsaw and cut the trees in half until it fell down, "We will use the controlled burning methods because cutting two kilometers radius of trees is not going to be easy. Even with this method, we still have to cut the tree for about thirteen kilometers instead of thirteen square kilometers, which are better since if we convert it to meters. It will be thirteen thousand meters and thirteen million square meters. Well, we can do this fast, though, since the forest is not that thick." "So, what I must do in my spare time?" Dima asked in boringness. "Well, just watch my back, thanks," Lance said as he continued to cut the trees down. In boringness, Dima sat down on the stone near the trees that Lawrence cut. He Hugged that rifle like the rifle is his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Lance was using his goggles and gas mask to protect himself from the sawdust. Lance Multicam uniform was covered in a thick layer of sawdust just after cutting down 28 trees. his black hair turned brown from the sawdust. "mmmm...mmmmh.mmmm," Lance rumbled because of his gas mask. "Release your gas mask," Dima said. Lance shook his head in disagreement. He continued to cut down the large tree in front of him. Dima yawned and checked his magazine that was full of Russian 7.62. Meanwhile, Lance was cutting down the trees. Dima observed the surrounding around him. He saw a big hill and a big shallow river with clear water. He also some wild animals like bears and boars. Dima took a walk around the forest to observe the flora and fauna. The forest consisted mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. Oftentimes, Dima saw a wood bison, sometimes only one of the other times it was dozen of them. sometimes there was a caribou, moose, and roe deer. Overall, the forest on that island was a Taiga and from that Dima can conclude that he was in a northern region of the planet. He went back to Lance after got boring from walking around the forest. "You want some bear meat for dinner?" Dima asked Lance, who was cutting down his 60th tree. Lance shook his head in disagreement. He continued to cut down the tree. Dima was bored as hell to the point where he wants to ride that bear. All of a sudden, a fluffy orange creatures appeared on top of the tree that Lance cut. He came down and stopped Lance from cutting down the trees. Lance gave the command to Dima to talk to him. Dima approached him and asked, "Tovarisch, who is this?" Lance shook his head and continued to cut down the tree. The creature started to talk, "My name is Lorax, and I speak for the trees." "Sorry, Tovarishch, but my friend here must do this, and he will burn down the forest after this," Dima replied as he walked and followed Lance, who had already done the job halfway. "Well, that''s too bad," Lorax said as he snapped his finger, and Lance was blown away by a sudden shock of wind. "Holy moly, You Cyka. what have you done to him?" Dima aimed his rifle at Lorax''s head, but even before he went to pull the trigger, Lance had already shot him using the Browning pistol that he stored on his hip. Lorax fell to the ground with a hole on his head. Dima grabbed his bayonet and started to skin him since the skin was very fluffy, and Natalie loves fluffy things. Lance threw away his gas mask and put it on his back while still wearing the safety helmet. "Duh, what a mess," Lance said as he tried to stand up as another blast of wind hit him again and Made him flew away. "Tovarisch!" Dima said as he tried to scan the direction of the wind attack. But he also flew away from the blast of the wind. "Dima, we better get out of here, this is not a magic spell," Lance said as he ran away from the forest and firing his AK at all direction to suppress the enemy. Still, another wind blast hit him again, and he flew to the tree trunk. Both of them ran away from the forest in a zig-zag manner to avoid the wind blast that someone shot at them. However, the tree also fell down thanks to that shock of air. They ran as fast as they could because of the rush of adrenaline. "Who the blyat is shooting at us?" Dima asked Lance. "How the hell should I know? That''s not magic, I can feel it," Lance answered as the beach went closer. "Tovarisch, you are an interesting person, aren''t you?" Dima commented. However, when they arrived at the beach, another problem was waiting for them. The women were not there to help them, though Lochlan was sitting beside the campfire, which had already turned into burn amber now. "Hey there, Lance, why the hell someone follows you?" Lochlan said as he pointed his hand to the things behind us. A blue circular robot was flying behind them, and Lance had already his rifle muzzle at him, and both Dima and Lochlan had already grabbed their own GPMG; the PKP Pecheneg and the prototype LWMMG. It fired again his hand cannon that was attached to his hand, but although the shot hit Lance back, the other managed to put a lot of rounds to the robot and turned it into a hunk of metal. To make sure they put 200 rounds both 7.62x54 and the .338 Norma Magnum to the robot. The blue face turned into a chunk of high tech metal, and Lance further destroyed it by throwing two thermite grenades at it and turned it into a hunk of metal. After the thermite cooled down, they broke it down into several pieces and threw it at the open sea. "Duh, now the progress is halted again," Lance rambled as he threw his chainsaw at the ground and looked at the orange-colored skies on the background. Dima and Lochlan approached disappointed Lance, "Stalingrad isn''t rebuilt in one day tovarisch," Dima said. "America revolution didn''t take one day either. Just relax, ok?" Lochlan said as he greeted the women who had finished taking a bath in the nearby river. "About time you show up," Lance said. "Well, Lochlan, are the stew done yet?" Melody asked him as she wiped her wet brownish hair with a towel. "It''s all done," He said as he opened the pot that was sitting under the amber of the campfire. The pot was full of bear meat instead of the shark meat. Apparently, they found a parasite living on the shark, so they just used it as fuel for the campfire, which won''t do. Dima, as usual, always grabs the first serving of the soup. They ate the soup with a beautiful metal bowl that had already washed using clear water from the river. The women picked up about five liters of water from the river. Lochlan grabbed the woods from the shoreline and threw it into the campfire. Lance sipped at the soup, "Tomorrow, could you help cut down the trees in the forest? we have five kilometers to go." "Sure," Melody, Natalie, and Lochlan replied as for Dima, he will be the one that is guarding their encampment. 3 Abandoned For ''What is the future of my family?'' Lance was a son of a Duke, technically he had a vast land that is under his family commands, but that all gone in one night. He lost everything that has a connection to Lance''s live. He is considered dead. ''Hmm, and what is this knowledge of magic? Can I use it?'' He thought as he used a [Fire] spell multiple Times like a person playing with a lighter. A young officer approached him and told him, "Sir, General Kochler needs you on his office." "Tell him that I Will be there soon," Lance said as he stood up from the bench. The young officer walked away from him. Lance stood up, enjoying his young body. It has been three weeks since he was "stranded" on this island. To be honest, the airbase itself has grown into something similar to Ramstein airbase; it was a very lively base indeed. It just needs a couple civilians, and it will become a small town. When he crossed the street, suddenly, a convoy of armored vehicles and main battle tanks were driven passed him leaving a thick cloud of black diesel smoke. He coughed severely, "Blimey, where the heck does that Russian mechanized units go?" he said as he crossed the street on his way to General Kochler''s office. He opened the door and got greeted by his secretary, one of his secretaries, "General, how may I help you?" he asked Lance. "Could you tell General Kochler that I will drop by," Lance asked him. "Yes sir, you can sit down while I Will Contact him," He said as he used the telephone on his desk to call him while I sat down on a waiting bench in front of him. "Very much appreciated," I said as I opened a magazine in front of him. It was a newspaper, but honestly, it was useless since it was very 60ish. Mostly about the cold wars, although the fact that Russian and American soldiers were working here, side by side like a buddy. No jokes really, its quite common that an American pilot piloted a Mig right here and viced Versa. "Sir, he is in his office," He said to me, who was still reading the newspaper. "Thank you," Lance said, and he stood up and left the newspaper on the bench and entered the general''s office, which was located right behind the secretary desk. Lance opened the door and greeted by the warm breeze of the air conditioner on his office and a heated cushion of carpet. I sit on the chair in front of him. "Sir, nice to see you," He said as they shook their hands. "Nice to see you too. What do we get here, general?" Lance asked him. "Much appreciated General," Lance said as he opened the files one by one. The first page was full of writing, mostly those titles, descriptions, and by whom the report was written. The second page was the listing of the things of the recce mission. The third page until the tenth page was where things started to get interesting. The third page contained the description of an abandoned structure on the Northern side of the island. It was gathered by the 10th recon squadron. The page following included a bunch of pictures taken from Soviet cameras in the 60s. It wasn''t helping much to be honest. "So general, Have you sent any ground troops there?" Lance asked Kochler. "Honestly, not yet. However, Sir can join the expeditionary forces today," General Kochler said. "Ok, who is the platoon commander?" Lance asked him. "Captain Yugorov, sir," The general answered him. "Just me and that company alone?" Lance asked again. "Yes," He answered. "I Will take my leave then," Lance said as he stood up from the chair and left the room. "The company is using a Russian vehicle. You can meet them near the entrance, sir," he said as Lance closed the door of his office. Lance walked away from the general''s office to the entrance of the base. There was a company worth of armored vehicle column lining up on the entrance. BMP-1, T-64, and some Ural-375 trucks were parked there with a bunch of soldiers wearing dark green KLMK uniform with telnyashka undershirt underneath their uniform. However, if you look closely, some of the soldiers weren''t Slavic and more white Americans. "Good afternoon, gentlemen," Lance said while greeting the platoon commander. "Nice to see you, General, my name is Mikhail Yugorov," He jumped from the top of the BMP and greeted Lance with a very distinctive Russian accent. "Nice to see too, Capitan," Lance shook his hand in return. Lance climbed to the top of the BMP, and the other soldiers were entering their own respective armored vehicle, and the vehicle started to leave the base. Not much talking happened during the trip, but they traverse through the shoreline using that heavy armored vehicle, which leaves a trail on the beach. The convoy was moving in a line fashion. The front is protected by the T-64 and followed by our vehicle, which was BMP-1, then the heavy truck was in the middle of the convoy. The convoy closed in the same manner. "So Captain, what is the structure that we are visiting?" Lance asked him. The Captain''s head stuck out from the cabin and got on top of the BMP as well. He sat on top of the turret while holding his AK-47. Lance had replaced his weaponry to AK-47 as well since the replacement parts for the AK-15 are not yet available. "Well, sir, the structure we are visiting is some kind of defensive fortification about 2 km from the shoreline. We still don''t know much since we are the first ground recon team that are sent there," Mikhail said in English with a thick Slavic accent from his mouth. "Wow, Mikhail, I don''t know you can speak English fluently," Lance got surprised by his fluent English. "Haha, trust me general, the Americans here also fluent in Russian. §£§í §Þ§à§Ø§Ö§ä§Ö §Ô§à§Ó§à§â§Ú§ä§î §á§à-§â§å§ã§ã§Ü§Ú, §Ó§Ö§â§ß§à?" He said to the American soldier inside the BTR. Surprisingly enough, the American soldier responded with Russian as well, "§¬§à§ß§Ö§é§ß§à §ä§à§Ó§Ñ§â§Ú§ë," said the American soldier . "Yeah, we sure can speak Russian, sir," Captain Yugorov said. The trip wasn''t that long either since they just have to circle around the island. Though, a five hours trip while sitting on a metal thing would inevitably result in a very sore butt. Luckily, the trip came to a close when we saw a suspicious opening in the forest. Lance poked at the captain''s back, "Capitan, stop, look!" He said as he pointed his hands at an opening in the forest. "CONVOY HALT!! §°§ã§ä§Ñ§ß§à§Ó§Ú §Ü§à§ß§Ó§à§Û !!" The captain shouted, and the whole convoy stopped. The convoy stopped, and the infantry was mobilized to inspect that road, Lance was also included, but Mikhail stays in convoy. However, Lance didn''t mind too much about it. He walked with side by side with the commander of the squad itself. His name is Harold Alexanderson, his rank was a staff sergeant. They weren''t alone as an infantry since they were being followed by one T-64 main battle tank. The T-64 is a Soviet second-generation main battle tank introduced in the early 1960s. It was a more advanced counterpart to the T-62: the T-64 served tank divisions, while the T-62 supported infantry in motorized rifle divisions. It introduced a number of advanced features including composite armor, a compact engine and transmission, and a smoothbore 125-mm gun equipped with an autoloader to allow the crew to be reduced to three so the tank could be smaller and lighter. In spite of being armed and armored like a heavy tank, the T-64 weighed only 38 tonnes. That thing was undoubtedly excellent fire support even if a big gigantic creature is going to attack us. We walked in the gravel road until we reached the abandoned structure. The tank commander parked the tank in front of the fort gate that is closed tight. The fortress itself was made from reinforced bricks that are ideal for defense against naval cannon. The gate was made of wood that is not so ideal for armor, but light enough for human operators to open it, sadly though it was locked by a huge lock. We split the squad into three groups, three-person for each fireteam, which was commanded by one NCO except for my group, which was commanded by General Officer. We walked around the fortress, and the first thing we noticed is the number of holes that the fort had. The number of broken cannons was staggering, too, considering the fortress abandoned states. "Gee, the fort was under a heavy attack, wasn''t it?" Lance said as she looked upwards towards the giant hole that the fort had. "No doubt, sir, the size of the hole is enormous," said one of the private. "Sir, do you think a naval battle happened here?" One of the corporals asked Lance. "Obviously, but at what scale? This amount of holes only can be achieved by a fleet of frigates on this age, how many cannon that they had? 50 cannons and a fleet of it? Damn, this island should hold a strategic position for the kingdom," Lance said to the corporal. "Sir, what should we do now?" The squad leader asked me. "Call captain Yugorov, the area, is relatively safe for us and tell the tank to shoot open the door," Lance said to a soldier with a backpack that had an antenna and a telephone-like com kit. "Roger that sir," he said as he told captain Yugorov to move in, and a cannon shot could be heard in the background in combination with heavy machine gunfire. Lance expected the cannon shot, but he didn''t expect the heavy machine gun fire since the fortress itself was supposed to be empty. Well, better check things out before everything go FUBAR. He ran to the tank with his group and readied his rifle in front of his shoulder in case something that he didn''t want to meet, came. However, the fear of the infested fortress slipped his mind since this is a magical world where everything happened. On the gate of the fort, he could see the tank rained down the fortress with heavy machinegun rounds, and the soldiers were also started to close into the fortress while shooting their AK-47. The rain of bullets was raining the fort, engaging a target that Lance didn''t even know what. After he peeked at the fortress, he finally saw what they engaging, a bunch of dead soldiers that had turned alive was. They walked like a mindless zombie, but still possessed enough threat for our company, so they decided to wipe them all out. "Courtyard clear," the tank commander said as a bunch of zombies was lying on the ground. Lance moved first to the fortress and opened a large brown broken door on the fortress located deep inside the fortress that leads to the room of the commander of the fort itself. He kicked opened the door and turned on the flashlight of his rifle. He encountered a zombie and put three rounds of 7.62 Russian to the torso of the zombie. He put the rifle on his back and continued to inspect the room with his TT-30 pistol. He opened the wardrobe of the commander and coughed from the dust that was coming out of the wardrobe. He coughed severely to the point that he wore his gasmask that was placed on the back of his rig. The wardrobe contained the outfit of the commanding officer of the fortress itself. It was a red coat with a signature officer hat on it. It was like a 17th-century British officer uniform. Well, the technology in this world is around that except for the part that magic is involved in this world. "Good for disguise, I think," He said as he looked at the well preserved dusty uniform that is only needed to be washed once. He thought that that thing will come in handy later. However, he must be careful when using that uniform since he didn''t know the user of the uniform in the first place. Suddenly, a lot of broom broom sound from the engine of the armored vehicle column had arrived at the fortress. The soldier had already moving to clear the multiple room that were available in the fort. The soldier had already strengthened the position by placing several DShK heavy machine guns on the hole in the wall. The tanks were on stand by in front of the gate of the fortress, and the BTRs were placed near the opening of the forest to protect them from any threat. He looked up the roof and saw a chandelier placed on the room and turn it on by lowering it using the special lever on the wall near the door and light it up with his gas lighter. He raised the chandelier again, and the room was finally lit up by the candle and revealing a desk and a bed on the room, which was well preserved for its age. ''I guess only the wardrobe that is full of dust,'' he wondered. He rested in the almost cleaned bed and took a nap since the other soldiers were on their private time as well. 2100 hours, eight hours after the operation started. He opened the door again and saw the full fortification that was made in a concise time. In the middle, he can see the main battle tank was stationed in the middle of the fort. In another section of the port, the soldiers were burning the bodies of the zombies. The soldiers had already stationed for a patrol on top of the fort wall. A lot of lamps were placed around the fort and enlightened it. The captain approached me from behind and asked me, "Beautiful, isn''t it?" "Yes, it is," Lance said as he gazed at the afternoon skies. [Quest updated] ''System open quest.'' [Showing available quests for user] Main Quest: [Exploring] Discover the whole island and beat the dungeon: Landmark discovered 2/5. Dungeon beaten 0/1 Rewards: CVN-78 Aircraft carrier + Escort [Closing] ''So I can summon the vehicle that I want right, nice.'' [Emergency quest imminent, please check the quest board ASAP] ''System open quest.'' [Showing available quests for user] Emergency quest: [Survive] A whole fleet of the first-rate ship in combination of offensive from nearby dungeon has been sent to scout the unknown activity on the island. The threat will attack first and asked questions later. The airbase is relatively safe. Objective: Survive Rewards: Advancements of weapon technology to the year of 2008. Main Quest: [Exploring] Discover the whole island and beat the dungeon: Landmark discovered 2/5. Dungeon beaten 0/1 Rewards: CVN-78 Aircraft carrier + Escort [Closing] "Capitan, do you know what a first-rate ship is?" Lance asked in curiousness. "Well, why do you ask that?" Mikhail asked Lance back. "Just wondering," Lance tried to hide the fact of the attack that is imminent on the fort. "A first-rate ship was the designation for the largest ships of the line, equivalent to the ''super-dreadnought'' of more recent times. Some models were equipped with more than a hundred cannons. Well, the cannon can''t penetrate our armor, but that is not the problem, the problem layered on the unaware personnel casualties, why do you ask?" Mikhail asked. "Get the general on the line and tell him to tell the squadrons and send a backup here, something is going to be very wrong tonight," Lance said. "Yes sir," he said as he walked away from Lance. Lance ran to the radio communication post and grabbed one of the headphones that were placed there. He heard the dialog between the radio communicator and the lookout on the MBT, BMP, and the patrol on top of the fort wall. "Dimitri 1 to CP, An unknown light has been spotted in the south side of the fort, might be a threat, permission to engage?" He heard that from one of the tank commanders. "Zoya 3 to CP, A white object has been spotted near the sea. The object is still unknown over and out," He heard that one from the BTR that was placed on the shoreline. Suddenly, rain of cannonballs was fired at the fort. "ALL UNITS TO COMBAT POSITION!! ALL UNITS TO COMBAT POSITION!!!" 4 Emergency Ques "Radio operator, are you ok?" Lance said as he tried to wake the unconscious radio operator up. He was bleeding so bad from his head and suspected death. His head got pierced by a fragment from the incoming cannon. To make sure he was dead, he shot two rounds at the dying soldier to put him out of his misery. He grabbed the microphone of the radio and started to inform the other soldiers of the incoming attack, "CP to all units, report!!" "Delta squad here got a wounded." "Dimitri here got two injured men from the infantry." "To all armored vehicle column on the shoreline. Focus your attack at the frigate, sink that ship down!! Hold on until the air force come!!" Lance shouted to the microphone. "Copy that, Dimitri out," A Cannon sound could be hard, but this time, it was coming from the HE Shell of the 125mm smoothbore cannon of the T-64 main battle tanks. "Frigate sunk." From the south, a heavy machine-gun fire could also be heard. Lance had not seen the threat from the dungeon yet, but it wasn''t that worse compared to those from the ship. Captain Mikhail finally approached him on those thick clouds of smoke. He used his gas mask and holding his AK on his left hand. "General, why are you here?" The Captain shouted between the heavy Cannon fire from both of our tanks and enemy''s frigates. "Why am I here? Your radio operator is dead, and we are under attack from the first-rate battleship of this age," Lance shouted back. "Battleship? There are a bunch of monsters near the south gate, the infantry is fighting them," Mikhail shouted again. Lance, in response, ran to the south side of the fortress while holding his AK 47 on his hands. Of course, the ship was still firing their Cannon, and the fort barely manages to defend against it. On the south side, meanwhile, A lot of monsters were appearing holding torch on their hands. Mostly, they were a goblin, orcs, ogre, and in rare cases, elf. The soldiers were shooting the Russian 12.7 rounds using the DShK from the hole in the fortress. There was an idiom that can describe this, ''One dead and a thousand more appear.'' That''s how chaotic the situation was. Lance approached one of the abandoned machine-gun posts that had no soldier in it. One of the soldiers came and helped him loaded the rounds into the DShK heavy machine gun. "How chaotic is it?" Lance asked the soldier who was loading the ammo into the heavy machine gun. "Sir, the creature suddenly emerged from the forest. We thought it was just another survivor of your ship, but as it turned out into this kind of mess that we have," the soldier said as he finished loading the 12.7x107mm bullets. The BMP provided them with enough suppressing fire from its 78mm Cannon, but the number of monsters that were appearing just too many. "Where is our air support?" The soldier asked me. "How the hell should I know? Just keep giving me the target," Lance said as the soldier pointed his hands at the direction of one of the monsters. They keep shooting at both the frigates and the monsters for straight six-hour. Logistic support apparently wasn''t available, so they ran out of ammo quickly. The ammo boxes that available behind Lance were reduced to only one box from 15 boxes. The Cannon of the BMP stopped firing, and the monsters were getting closer and closer as the ammo was running low. "CP, CP, this is Zoya, Where is the ammo? We have run out," Lance shouted. "This is Dimitri, The Cannon has run out of ammo," The tank commander that was shooting at the battleship said. "Where the hell is that air support?" Lance said to his radio. "General, look up," Mikhail said on the radio. In the sky, finally, their air support had arrived. A blip of red and green light could be seen from the B-52 bomber. The bomber was also escorted by a squadron of F-4 "Phantom." The bomber carried the M117 bomb, and the fighter carried the AGM-12 "Bullpup" bomb. The bomber opened its bay and started to drop the bomb at the monsters. The ground troops ceased their fire as a bunch of explosions appeared in front of their eyes. The monster''s attack quickly became a slaughter party for the soldiers since they didn''t have to fire their weapons again. The soldier finally rests on the ground watching the bomber bombed the monsters out of existence. They cheered and shouted at the monsters as some of then started to retreating but caught in the blast of the bomb. Although the battleship still posed some threat, one by one, they were sunk by the T-64 main battle tanks. 125mm smoothbore Cannon surely had more range and damage than the Largest Cannon on their ship. The ship was sunk one by one, and the survivors were wiped out by the AGM-12 Bullpup A-G guided missile. The fleet was sunk in seconds, and the dungeon was destroyed by multiple bombs from multiple bombing round by many B-52 flights. [Quest updated] ''System open quest,'' Lance said inside his heart while laying in the ground with the other tired soldiers. [Showing available quests for user] Emergency quest: [Survive] A whole fleet of the first-rate ship in combination of offensive from nearby dungeon has been sent to scout the unknown activity on the island. The threat will attack first and asked questions later. The airbase is relatively safe. Objective: Survive 1/1 Rewards: Advancements of weapon technology to the year of 2008. Main Quest: [Exploring] Discover the whole island and beat the dungeon: Landmark discovered 1/5. Dungeon beaten 1/1 Rewards: CVN-78 Aircraft carrier + Escort [Closing] ''System accept rewards.'' [Rewards transfer imminent] ''System view status.'' [Showing user capabilities] Level: 50 Unit available: [Locked] -Land Vehicle: 5000 -Water Vehicle: 2000 -Air Vehicle: 3000 Unit Summoned:[Locked] -Land Vehicle: 1000 -Water Vehicle: 0 -Air Vehicle: 200 Base available: -AFB: 1 [Upgrade Available] -AB:1 -NB:1 Combat-Ready Personnel Available: 50.000 [User can summon any weapon that is produced below the year of 2008 except for quest rewards] [Prototype weapon now can be summoned] [Logistic personnel will be handled automatically without reducing the combat-ready personnel] [User can summon a building or base] [Upgrades For User and personnel are now available] [Closing] ''Well, it looks like the combination of destroying a dungeon with a bomber and killing a fleet of the first-rate battleship is Made my level go up so much.'' "Capitan, are you ok?" Lance said to Mikhail, who was walking to him with a bandage covering his head and his left eyes. Mikhail laughed while holding his bandage, "Haha, this is just from a big ass Brick falling on top of my head." "Ruskies sure are rough, aren''t they?" Lance laughed off as he bandaged his opened wounds on his knee from the Cannon fragment. "Well, the Americans survive a direct hit from a Cannonball," Mikhail said. "Yeah, haha," Lance laughed off as the dark night sky got replaced by an orange-ish sky. Though the orange sky revealed a cruel fact of the land. Showing thousands of dead bodies and literally a sea of blood between the charred forest. The sea had turned red from the blood of the Seamen of the ship. Wood chips could be seen almost everywhere. The fortress was full of wounded soldiers, bandages wrapped around their head, torso, or leg. The tank was full of dents, and one of the BMP was crushed by a lucky shot. Though, everyone survived thanks to the advanced combat medic. ''Well three more landmarks to go, but this time we have all of the manpower that we are going to need to discover the remaining landmarks'' Lance murmured as he tried to stand up using one foot and walked with only one foot to the commander''s quarter that he found when he found the fort. He entered the room and brightened the room with the chandelier, and decided to sit down on the desk of the commander itself. He noticed that his desk has a drawer, and he opened it and found a book with an ink pen and a bottle of ink. He read the book. The book contained the information that the fort was under attacked from a navy from the Soulisphate kingdom. They were pinned down by the limited supply and the large amount of firepower that the Soulisphate had. The soldiers tried to push against the Soulisphate but failed miserably. The journal got more tragic by every page, most of it describing the lack of supply and the lack of ammunition. The soldier that was trying to get to the jungle to hunt for food never return alive. They were starving until the last page of the journal, which the commander wrote that he was feeling starving. The uniform on the wardrobe must be Soulisphate owned since that was the nationality of Lance just before his past memory returned. "Lack of logistical support can be devastating, isn''t it?" Lance said it out loud as he took out the colonial uniform from the bedroom and brought it to the commander table. "Hmm, it looks like this will be useful later," he said to himself. ''System, upgrade units'' [Opening Upgrading Procedure] The system will upgrade the user weaponry to the latest edition for each of the nations available in user preference. Some of the older vehicles will be removed and be replaced by the newest version of its variant. Personnel won''t be changed and will stay the same except for their equipment. [YES/NO] ''Yes'' 5 New Equipmen "Good Afternoon General, How''s the night?" Mikhail said with a straight face. Lance got shocked with the disappearance of Mikhail''s random Russian word in the conversation, "§ä§í §Ó §á§à§â§ñ§Õ§Ü§Ö, §ä§à§Ó§Ñ§â§Ú§ë?" He asked while shaking his body violently. "§¹§ä§à §Ù§Ñ §é§Ö§â§ä? §¤§Ö§ß§Ö§â§Ñ§Ý, §à§ã§ä§Ñ§ß§à§Ó§Ú§ã§î, §ñ §ß§Ö §ã§å§Þ§Ñ§ã§ê§Ö§Õ§ê§Ú§Û §Ú §ñ §Ó §á§à§â§ñ§Õ§Ü§Ö. General, I''m ok and well. What is wrong with you?" Mikhail replied in Russian, and his Slavic accent had returned. "I was worried that you have turned into Americans," Lance said as he took a very deep breath. "Americans? What are you talking about? Even If I were American, I''m still what I am. Russian or Americans, either way, Mikhail is still Mikhail, and I''m still I am," Mikhail said to prove his point. "What?" Lance asked shockingly. "You''re still in the era of the cold war, closed-minded, aren''t you, General? See, the fact that we are working together now has eliminated our differences both as a race and as a nation. It doesn''t matter even if I have to use American equipment because Americans also don''t mind using Russian equipment. General, we are a unity in diversity. Everyone fills each other flaws," Mikhail said to Lance as he waved around his HK416. He wasn''t wrong though, Lance''s AK-47 had been replaced into an HK416 as well. A squadron of F-15E flew right above his head. "What are those Eagles doing here?" Lance asked Mikhail. "The Eagles? They are on patrol, I think, that was quite a ruckus last night, you know?" Mikhail said. "Well, have you gathered all of the clothes that the soldiers that were stationed here wore?" Lance asked him. "Yes we have, why did you ask? We thought it will be a good idea to wear that on the mainland if you send us there," Mikhail said. "Well, Capitan, you''re a promotion material, you know?" Lance said to the Captain. "Thank you, sir," Mikhail said as Lance left him to operate the radio again. The spy planes had already flown around the base to scan for a structure. Lance had not to get the recon report yet, but he will get it soon, and he will get along with the first recon battalion since his army has expanded a lot. Brigadier General Kochler had already been promoted to be a Lieutenant General by now. He should have another general as his adjutant right now. A Blackhawk helicopter was parked near the fort. Lance walked to the helicopter, which a soldier had already piloted on it. Lance put the strap on his belt, and he sat down at the door of the helicopter. The pilot asked him, "Sir, where do you want to go?" "To the Heathen base please," he said as the pilot flipped a few knobs, and the rotor of the helicopter started to spin. The helicopter took off and gained some altitudes. The helicopter flew above the road that was connecting between the Heathen base and the fort. The breeze of wind hit Lance''s face and blew his hair. He saw the animal running around in the forest surrounding the road, looks fun. The base have aircraft took off from the runway, including the big one since the airbase has expanded a lot. Now, the airbase has more than twenty flying squadrons. The airbase was very busy indeed. The hangar was full of planes: F-22A, F-15C, F-15E, F/A-18F, F/A-18E, A-10, B-52, B-1, B-2, AC-130, E-3, KC-135, U-2, and many other NATO planes. The planes were parked neatly on their perspective hangar, but some of the experimental planes like the SR-71 were parked outside of the hangar. Sadly, the trip had to come to an end once the helicopter landed on a helipad near the hangar. Though Lance wanted some rest, he simply can''t because another recon report had come in the form of a white classified file. A Major General was the one that gave it to him, which was unusual. The report was showing him the location of all of the landmarks on the island. As it turned out that the island formerly was a city that was completely wiped out by the dungeon on the island, but since lance had bombed the dungeon out of existence, the island was relatively safe again. The report suggested that the landmark was an abandoned village, an abandoned port, and an abandoned mine. [Quest has been updated] ''wow, that was fast, system open quest status.'' [Showing available quests for user] Main Quest: [Exploring] Discover the whole island and beat the dungeon: Landmark discovered 5/5. Dungeon beaten 1/1 Rewards: CVN-78 Aircraft carrier + Escort [Completed] [Main Island] Return to the place where user was coming from: Mainland visited 0/1 Rewards: ??? [Closing] ''System, what do you mean by this? Do you mean that I don''t have to visit the structure? So why don''t you gave me the discovery sooner when I invade that fort?'' [System decided that soviet era picture wasn''t good enough for the discovery status since the picture was very blur] ''Gee, what a great argument, system accept rewards.'' [System can''t display user rewards since the user didn''t have any naval base yet] ''Another mission, then? Yup, I want to do it the easy way this time.'' The Major general shook his general, who was daydreaming, "General, Are you ok?" "I''m ok Major, " Lance said as he retrieved the files and opened it at the section, which gave the position of the abandoned port and showed it to the Major General. "General, do you know what is this?" "This is an abandoned port sir, do you have any plan with it, sir?" The general asked lance with an enthusiastic tone. "I can assemble a battalion to occupy it," the general suggested and further brightened Lance''s face. [Warning, a boss-type creature spotted on the abandoned port] "I agree with you, General, assembly the squadron, and I will join in the attack too. I will be with the F/A-18E squadron," Lance said to his subordinate. "Ok, sir, I agree with that," Lance said as he walked away from the general into the hangar. In the hangar, there were a lot of fighter jets. One of them was his plane, which was an F/A-18E "Super Hornet." Not much can be told except that the aircraft was one of the carrier-capable fighter jets that were very versatile for any mission. Not that Lance didn''t want to choose an F-15E, which carried a heavier weapon load, but he wanted to land on the CVN-78 once it got summoned simply. He ran to the nearest changing room and wore his flight suit. He wore the G-suit and left his HK416 and his Rig in the locker. He brought the Royal clothes that had already been washed from the blood and stains from the pirate''s raid back in the day. He put it into his cargo pod underneath the F/A-18E fighter jet. He knew that the mainland was about 2000 kilometers from the island since the speed of a sailing speed is about 4 knots because of the bad weather, and it took about three weeks to reach the island. However, with a modern ship, it will only take three days at most, which were quite a difference, but with any jet fighter, the distance can be covered in only 30 minutes if the option of mid-air refueling is available since the afterburner was thirsty of fuel. Lance finished packing up his stuff and climbed to the jet, and closed the canopy. He began the engine starting procedure. He taxied his plane to the runway and request for taking off. He pushed the throttle upwards and turned on the afterburner of the F/A-18E and left the airspace of the AFB. His job with his squadron was to provide support for the infantry underneath him. He brought 2 AGM-65 Maverick and 2 AGM-130 A-G missiles. Both of them are capable of destroying a tank, and surely a boss creature wouldn''t be a problem. The flight wasn''t long because of the abandoned port only fifth kilometers away. Once they arrived, they see what the boss creature is; a Kraken. "General, Alpha squadron at your service," the flight commander said to Lance. "Roger that, thank you alpha two," Lance replied as they flew in Arrow formation. The alpha squadron dived down towards the sleeping Kraken. They fired their ATGM and intentionally missed the Kraken. The Kraken woke up and became enraged by the annoying fighter Jets. Alpha 1: "Alpha 2, bring the creature to the sea." Alpha 2: "Alpha 2 copy." The Kraken got baited into the sea. Now, there was not worry about destroying the Naval port since the Kraken had already gone to the sea. The squadron launched their full salvo of A-G missiles and blasted the Kraken to the oblivion and beyond. The octopus turned into a bloody lump of meat, and the sea had turned red. Alpha 3: "Mission completed, Kraken is destroyed." Alpha 4: "Flight leader, RTB?" Alpha 2: "I do not know, for now, General?" Alpha 1: "Mission success and completed. Alpha squadron, you may return to the base. I got another business I need to take care of." Alpha 2: "Sure thing, general. Alpha squadron RTB." The other F/A-18E left the formation leaving only Lance and his plane on the formation. Lance had fuel for another 8 hours of flying. [Batalion for the invasion of the abandoned Naval port have been aborted. User may build a naval base on the abandoned port, and the quest rewards Will are automatically added] [YES/NO] Lance who was checking on his flight equipment noticed it and leaned back at his chair. ''yes, build it.'' 6 CVN-78 and The other carrier strike groups "Wow, what a view," Lance said as the aircraft carrier was launched from the port alongside with its escort. The carrier strike group consisted of the CVN-78 aircraft carrier itself accompanied escorts of other ships. The ship was escorted by not one or two missile cruisers but by four of those Ticonderoga guided missile cruisers. The destroyer also doubled on their required minimal amounts for a carrier strike group, which were six Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers. There were also three supply and oiler ships in the present next to the carrier strike group. The amphibious assault group was also present near the aircraft carrier considered of three Wasp-class ships, four San Antonio class ships, and finally five Harpers Ferry class ships. Not stopping there, but there were also other carrier strike groups with similar equipment, albeit with different aircraft carriers, which were the CVN-76 and the CVN-75. ''Gee, one of those groups, and we can project power that Beats the entire country military force. What a truly magnificent view,'' He mumbled as he flew in a circle around the carrier strike group that was sailing on the open sea. [System has finished the reward procedure] ''I don''t know what your definition of an escort is, but thanks.'' Lance made an approach to the aircraft carrier, and the CATC acknowledged him and started to land the plane. CATC: "Acknowledged for landing, general you may land." Lance made a slow approach to the carrier and landed on the carrier successfully after the rope that was attached to the Hook of the aircraft stopped it. CATC: "Nice landing, general." Lance aircraft was towed into the hangar inside the aircraft carrier, and he got out of it. He got greeted by the Rear Admiral of the ship, which was the commander of the entire group. With his flight suit still on his flight suit and that Admiral was in a formal uniform. "General, nice to meet you. My name is Harold Andersen, I''m the commander of this fleet." "Nice to meet you, Admiral, show me the way to the control tower, please," Lance said to the Admiral. "Follow me please," the Admiral lead the way as he climbed the stairs. "Admiral, how many crews do we have in this carrier?" Lance asked him. "Currently, about 4500 personnel are on board, and 65% of them are women," Admiral Andersen said as he climbed a ladder into the landing deck. "65%? That is an unusual number. On average, only about 15% of the personnel are female," Lance said to his Admiral. Lance looked out of the windows of the bridge. The carrier and the ship lights were shining, giving the Illumination of a small town in the afternoon. It''s genuinely like a small town indeed considering the number of ships that were there. Lance decided to go for the flight deck to observe the strike group. The aircraft carrier was sailing right in the middle of the convoy. The corners were covered by missile cruisers, and the convoy was protected by missile destroyer. The radar of the CVN-78 can detect a target with a distance more than 400 kilometers, so any threat will be eliminated without ever becoming a threat, what a truly amazing power projection. Suddenly, a figure approached Lance from behind him. The figure poked Lance''s back, "Hey there tovarisch, why do your eyes always look so empty when you''re looking at something? Comrade is here to help you with a shot of vodka and a piece of good Russian advice," he said as he embraced lance from the back. "Thank you, Dima, but I passed on the first one," He said to Dima, who was wearing a BDU for Navy and a four-star on his clothes. "Haha, I see, so Lance, what do you have on mind right now? Just like I said, Comrade is here for ya," Dima said with his thick Russian accent as sea wind blew his cap away. "Hmm Dima, I''m a bit confused right now, you see, do you know how to do a diplomatic solution to take someone else belongings right from his front door without he gets angry and tried to take it back," Lance said. Dima crossed his hands, "Well, Lance, What do you mean by this belongings, and who do you mean by he?" "These belongings that I mean is my land, at least it used to. The he I mean in this context is the king and the landlord himself," Lance said to Dima. "Peacefully and fairly?" Dima asked him with an unsatisfied face. "Yes," Lance replied. "Well, you can build up everything from scratch by the first step, which is getting noticed by the landlords. From that point, you can build up a relationship with the king and get some nobility status. After that the king will give you a piece of land somewhere in the region. If everything went smoothly, I say it will take about twenty years or so. My point is if everything went smoothly," Dima explained to him. "Might as well live as a normal family and live in the mainland for the rest of my lifetime Dima. What do you mean by everything went smoothly?" Lance asked him again. "Smoothly mean that everything went according to plan. We don''t even know who the person that was sinking your ship was. We don''t know if the kingdom still wants you. We don''t know if there are any possibilities that the kingdom actually wants to assassinate you. We don''t even know the secret ingredients of the tsar vodka," Dima explained everything that he worried about. "I agree with you, except for the last point. Even does the kingdom wants me to disappear? Why?" Lance asked Dima. A breeze of wind hit our face, and this time was a bit warmer because the air was coming out of the afterburner of the F/A-18, "Any reason for assassinating your family is considered as invalid if the king was the one that requested it. Tsar would kill anyone that he wants to kill just by pointing his hands at the person, any question left?" Dima asked Lance. "In my mind, a peaceful diplomatic is simply by making some agreements with the landlord or the king himself. Maybe it will take longer, but the outcome will result in less conflict and better future," Lance gave out his idea of peaceful diplomatic with the high brass. "Not that I hate that idea, but I also don''t like it either," Dima said. "What''s on your mind then?" Lance asked him again for his advice. "A peaceful diplomatic solution by the mean of intimidation and fast and accurate power projection." 7 The Pirates Are Here. Time to Shock and Awe Lance was placed in a quarter with another first lieutenant since the cabin for a superior officer was lacking, and he didn''t want to sleep on the chair of his admiral either. So the option of sharing the bunk bed with another officer seemed to be good at times. His bunk buddy apparently had an enormous fear of rats and always imagining that there was a giant rat hiding under their bunk bed. He always woke Lance up and disturb his sleep during the two days of cruising. "General, this is a different case, a ship has been spotted a hundred kilometers from here," the lieutenant said, tried to warn him. "What? A hundred kilometers? You wake me up for that? Fuck you, lieutenant," Lance said as he sat down again at his bunk bed. "Sir, this is an important target," The lieutenant tried to wake him up. "Lieutenant, respectfully, when is the last time you are exaggerating about things?" Lance said to the panic lieutenant. "Last night, sir," he said. Lance woke up, and with a lazy posture, he said, "That''s right, that is fucking right. Last night you woke me up in the middle of the night, telling me that there was a rat under our bunk bed, so we went on a rat hunt yesterday, right? Guess what, we didn''t found any. And guess what? You woke me up, later on, that same night, stomping my belly with combat shoes pretending that I was a large rat under your bunk bed. You were lucky that I''m your very super duper uber mega humble flag officer," he said to his junior officer. "But sir, this thing is different. There are pirates," The lieutenant said. "Then what? Just let the bushmaster 40mm deal with them. Why did you have to wake me up?" Lance asked. "Sir, the leader, was wearing a hood on his head," the lieutenant said and made lance awoke like a beaver in the morning. "Hood? Get the seahawk lieutenant," He said as the lieutenant saluted and ran towards the outside of the aircraft. He ran to the landing deck of the CVN-78 and saw the white helicopter that was ready to take off from the landing deck. The helicopter was empty with only the pilot and the co-pilot and one door gunner. "General, good afternoon," The door gunner said as he gave Lance on of the UH-60 helicopter helmet that has a skull decal on the mouth protector. Lance sat down on the door gunner, who was equipped with an M134 7.62 minigun. The helicopter took off and flew across the floating ships, which seemingly covered the entire ocean. The trip took about half an hour since the ship was about a hundred kilometers away from their position. "So, what is the plan?" Lance asked. "We are going to do some covering fire for the SEAL that is going to infiltrate the pirate ship, sir," The pilot said. "Roger that sir, I will tell the others," The co-pilot said to him. The helicopter circled around the ship while the pirates were shooting their musket and fired their magic spell, but failed miserably, thanks to the speed of the helicopter that far beyond their expectation. The SEAL team arrived with a rubber dinghy while our helicopter provided them with the mean of distraction. They wore scuba diving suits with the signature MP5 with a suppressor. They swam stealthily to the pirate''s frigate while the pirate was desperately tried to shoot at our helicopter. Lance laughed hard when he saw the frightened pirate when they saw the scuba diving suit. He got his revenge as the SEAL team made such a short work of the pirates. Well, they are trained to do this after all, although at a bigger scale and the operation is much more difficult. The SEAL team breached through the doors, and they successfully had gained entry to the Captain''s quarter where the hooded leader was located. Lance saw that on the camera feed and boarded the pirate''s ship using the rope of the helicopter. He entered the cabin and saw a lot of maps and a lot of documents with the captain itself on his desk, bleeding from multiple holes of his body and had a flintlock pistol on his left hand. The SEAL team surrounded the captain while aiming their MP5 at the captain''s head in case he moved again. Lance opened the cabinet under his desk, which a usual place for a leader of that age to keep his journal and document. Luckily, Lance had found one of its journals. Well, the map could be useful as well rather than buying it at the market. Also, the gold treasury seems to be worth the time. He opened the hood of the man revealing a blonde man with a thick mustache on it. Blood was coming out of his nose, and he said right in front of the man''s face, "Acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt," before he closed his eyes and rested him in hell. "General, Return to the carrier?" one of The SEALs asked me. "Yes, return to base and bring all of his belongings. Let the intelligence team does the job," Lance told the rest of them before he ascended back to the helicopter via the hoist. The seal dived back at sea with a container similar to a body bag to the dinghy and sailed away from the ship. The other marines in the other helicopter shot the ship with the M134 minigun from the SH-60 "Seahawk." The 7.62mm bullets pierced the wooden armor of the ship and exploded the gunpowder storage of the ship. A Harpoon missile was also launched to the pirate ship and turned the already sinking ship into pieces of scrap woods and metal. The Carrier strike group had moved thirty kilometers from its last position, so the trip distance was a bit farther, but that''s not a big problem for Lance since he had a new source of entertainment, which was the journal of the pirate''s leader. 8 Side Story: New Year Above USS Gerald R Ford "Well, general, where should I put it?" The sailor asked Dima. "There, in the fridge right next to the grill on the runway," Dima said as he talked to his walkie talkie. "Thanks, sir," He said as he rushed down the runway to put the beer on the big ass fridge that was moved from the supply ship. Though the winter was cold, warm beer was a bad idea too. Lance was still wearing the Christmas hat back from Christmas. "Dima, what should they do?" Lance asked as he checked his checklist of stuff that should be brought on the upper deck. He checked everything that made the party more fun, including tracer ammunition and some inert rounds. "Nothing, just enjoy the party generally," Dima said as he stopped a petty officer carrying a vodka and grabbed a bottle from his hands. He walked away from Lance, but Lance followed him from behind because he had nothing more to do. The sailor prepared the grill fast, and hamburger and hotdogs were served to the starving sailor who was lining up on the upper deck of the aircraft carrier. The clock showed 1900 hours, and they had a lot of free time. The F/A-18s were parked on the lower deck, and few of the SH-60s were moved to the helicopter carrier. Some of the F/A-18 was ready to take off while carrying a bunch of flares. Meanwhile, Lance and other flag officers were eating at the island, the meeting room to be exact. Well, to be fair, it''s only, so Lance had a reason to sleep on the couch of the admiral''s office. After they ate, Dima and Admiral Andersen were talking while Lance had fallen asleep on the couch of the office. Dima asked the admiral, "Admiral, we have to come such a long journey, haven''t we?" Dima poured a whiskey to the shot glass. "Yup, you''re right, General. Cheers," the admiral did a toast as Lance snored in the background, which disturbs the moment very much. Dima wanted to drug him with spirit, but Admiral prevented him from doing so. They drank all night long while Lance slept on the couch of Admiral. After a lot of drinking, Dima and Admiral Andersen had passed out on the chair while Lance woke up to see the fireworks that he had prepared for the new year eve. Lance went for a balcony on the island to saw the fireworks. The F/A-18F took off from the carrier right when his clock showed 23.45. The soldier on the upper deck started the countdown, "5...4...3...2..1..., FIRE!!!" the HMG started blasting while the Phalanx was fired to the skies and producing a nice firework-like effect. The F/A-18F was flying overhead and dropped its flares. "Well, I guess happy new year," Lance said as he shot his pistol at the skies above. 9 I Know Everything, Mostly. [12/11/1390] This is the first time I''m writing a journal. I hope I''m doing ok with it. Ok, so what should I write. Oh, I know. Today, was a great day. I got invited to a dinner with a landlord of a region of the Soulisphate kingdom. We were having some conversation and had dinner afterward. Damn, what a feast. ''Close enough, but still, I need to dig deeper.'' [16/11/1390] Second entry of this journal, duh, I''m too lazy to write it honestly. Maybe I discontinue it, but it just maybe. Today, the landlords request me to intercept an unknown ship that was sailing near the island of [Ink was spilled over this page]. The landlords said that the ship contained the traitor from the Soulisphate kingdom. The ship will be heavily guarded, he said, and that''s why I disagree and abandoned the contract. ''This Capitan surely know something about the attack.'' [17/11/1390] Why do I write this after yesterday? Well, the landlords threaten me, which I still refuse his offer although he gave me a threat of eliminating my ship and my crew. Sure, he can do that, but he will also lose the only one that willing to make their hands dirty for him. But, some of the crew started a rebellion against me once he showed them a big chest of gold coins in front of my team. Damn, he is an excellent negotiator. ''He wasn''t willing to do it? But why did he do that? Well, I knew he is at fault, but who is the landlord that we are talking about? I wish the SEAL took him alive, but it was too late to say that. It''s my fault that I told them not to kill him though.'' [19/11/1390] The first preparation to attack a convoy with my frigate, I upgraded the hull of the ship with reinforced metal and added more cannon on board the vessel. The crew bought a new ammo type that is going to help the attack. Though, I have my doubts about that swivel gun that I installed on the deck. ''Swivel gun? So that''s why the ammunition barrel became such an easy target.'' Sadly because of the night time operation that he took last night, he was so sleepy that Lance could barely open his eyes. He put the book on his pillow and fell asleep as soon as he laid his eyes on the fluffy pillow. 3 Hours Later "Sergey, wake up," A familiar Russian woke him up. The kind of the dumb and caring one as a person, but also wise in particular situations. Yup, that was Dima. The friendliest Ruskies that Lance could meet. "Hey there, What time is it Dima?" Lance asked him. Lance chugged down the whole glass and already could feel the warmth, though he held himself from drinking too much since it will affect his reputation as a General and as a role model for some of them. "Enough, for now, Dima, I need to read the journal," he said as he looked at his pillow for the journal that had disappeared, "Dima, where is the journal?" Dima was asked as he waved around the journal on his right hand. "Could you give me that thing, comrade?" Lance asked Dima politely. "Sure, but I don''t find too much that I can say a meaningful intel," Dima said to Lance. "What do you mean?" Lance asked him. "You may read it. I won''t spoil it. §³§á§à§Û§Ý§Ö§â §ï§ä§à §ß§Ö §Ó§Ö§ã§Ö§Ý§à, §á§â§Ñ§Ó§Õ§Ñ? Spoiler is not fun, right? Bye, Lance, it''s 15.60 right now," Dima said to lance. "You might say that it is already 4.pm you urod," Lance shouted to Dima as he left the room. [23/11/1390] Final preparation before that suicide mission. The hull was already heavily armored by some metal plating, and cannons have been refurbished as well. Everyone had a new blunderbuss and flintlock pistol as well as a new sword. The musket had been issued for every single one of us. If we come back alive from this, we have the luck of the devil. May God bless us all against this traitor. ''What kind of misunderstanding is this? Am I the traitor? I don''t think so. My family even never did an espionage action, well that is as far as I know. Only god knows what.'' [26/11/1390] The convoy has been sunk, and we have killed all of the survivors of the ship. Though, I met this one boy who seems to be very angry and charged at me with his full force. Though, I can counter it quickly. A mutiny from one of my ship crew also happened, and we threw him to the open sea. Overall, we have the luck of the devil, and we have to accept the reward. Well, Day was excellent and all. ''All of them? My uncle and relatives too? God fucking damn it, Who the hell did all of this? I will send him to hell and beyond.'' [30/11/1390] The landlords were very kind to throw us some nice bonus on the side. Well, I want to kill him and attack his territory, but my ego and common sense were active at the current times since I knew that the landlord was pretty strong in term of raw military power. His army is big enough to crush my ship three times a day. ''What a greedy bastard. Who are these landlords? Give me a name.'' [07/12/1390] We are the wealthiest pirate in the region now, and the most dangerous one too. We have embarked for a city 1000 km away from this mainland. It''s a shoreline of another region of the mainland since a road route was not suited for heavy cargo. We still worked as a pirate and raided a big galleon or frigates, we got no more connection with the landlords, and I think I will stop writing this journal. ''Gee, I get something, but almost nothing.'' Lance disappointed in his findings until he found an almost broken page and read it. It was a hastily written journal, but still readable to some extent. [21/12/1390] What kind of thing attacking us, Demon was angry at our raid today. A flintlock pistol that shoots faster than a puckle gun and dark sea creatures that suddenly breath cannonball from its mouth. Shit, if I make it, tell me ok? ''You don''t make it. Rest in hell now you bastard.'' Lance closed the book and put it on the table near the bunk bed. He felt extremely disappointed about the lack of intel and the lack of information about his assassin. He laid at the bed until an announcement came up. "Attention all personnel, we will reach the mainland shortly." 10 The Mainland Meanwhile, Lance and Dima were walking to the island, the Admiral meeting room, to be exact. Because of the numbers of the personnel that was available at the moment, only a few of them were called to the meeting. Only a handful of captains and commanders were being called to the meeting. Lance and Dima were also summoned by the Admiral. In the hallway of the carrier, "Dima, which one is better, Natasha or Melody?" Lance asked him. What a freak Lace is, Dima felt that he was asked the question in the same context as, "Whose dick is bigger yours or mine?" In the middle of a shower. "You urod, well, let''s see, I go with Tasha obviously," Dima said while climbing the ladder. "Mhmm," Lance nodded as they opened the door to the meeting room, and several officers had already waited there. Admiral Andersen had already written his plan on the whiteboard. Lance sat at one of the chairs while the Admiral explained his plan, which far from the idea that Lance had in mind. "So gentlemen, we will move the carrier to about 20 kilos from the shoreline and dispatch one LCS to the shoreline. Any question?" The Admiral said. "Admiral, I think this distance is ok for the most part, but don''t you think its largely underpowered considering the amount of fleet that we brought here?" Lance said to his Admiral. "Ok, so what do you have in mind?" Admiral Andersen asked him. "A cruiser, two destroyers, and one LC to the shoreline sir," Lance said. "Objection, sir," one of the captain said to me. "Why?" The Captain explained her opinion, "Respectfully sir, if your Objective is not to spark some conflict, we should just send a patrol boat to the shoreline. The size of our smallest LCS is bigger than the biggest battleship that they have." "Opinion denied, Captain, we have to play safe here, and sending only a patrol boat is quite risky," said the Admiral to her. "Ok, whose ship is going to be chosen?" Lanc asked. "Commander Vasiliy one, CG-52 and other ships," The Admiral said. "Ok, the plan is set and dismissed," Dima said in the meeting as the others left their chair. Lance returned to his quarter and packed his clothes in his 90L backpack. Dima did the same too. They left their quarters which Will be preserved for them and for them only. They walked to the flight deck with an empty SH-60 Blackhawk on the deck. Lance wore the flight helmet and sat down on the helicopter pilot seat. "You can pilot a halo comrade?" Dima asked. "Hell, Dima, I can fly everything," Lance said as he flipped a few knobs on the helicopter. The ship''s name was USS Bunker Hill. She carried enough firepower to take down an entire port. Once Lance landed the helicopter at the ship, Dima got out first and greeted his fellow Ruskies. "Tovarisch, its good to be seeing you," Dima said to the commander. "Nice to meet you too, General Dimitri," Commander Vasiliy said to him while Lance was carrying his massive backpack into the ship. As Lance walked passed them, he said this, "Dima, your belongings are still in the cargo." He walked into the ship while leaving the helicopter parked on the rear section. After some minutes, the custom finally came. In the form of a tiny boat, which about 1:100 in the scale against the might of the Littoral Combat Ship. It was pretty amusing when the crew was on their combat position as soon as the custom threw a hook at the ship. It also funs looking at the customs officer who got intimidated just by looking at the ship that has a size more significant than the biggest ship that they had. ''Blimey, they can give us a more polite way of approaching someone else ship, well, at least they don''t approach us in their first-rate battleship,'' Lance mumbled as he saw the crew of the ship approached the sailor while some of the other was on top of the M2 Browning Heavy Machine gun turret. They didn''t forget the Bushmaster 20mm that the sailor used and the other weaponry that they had. He walked to the customs officers while the other sailor was on stand by with their sights on the head of the customs officers. about 150/300 personnel has their rifle aimed at him. "Who is in charge here?" the custom asked. Lance walked between the sailor and said, "I''m in charge here, what can I do for you, gentlemen." Dima whispered from behind his ear, "Lance, it looks like we need some diplomatic solution here." Lance looked at the customs officer, "Pardon me for the intrusion, what do you need?" "Thanks, could you give me the details about what are you bringing here?" The custom asked. "Well, 330 people are on board, anything else?" Lance replied unwillingly. "No, I mean the cargo," The custom said. "Sorry, but its a secret," Lance said. "Well, it looks like you have to pay the fine for about two gold coins. If not, then you must return back to your homeport. Forcing to gain entrance, then our ship and fort will open fire. Mind you, that our port here has four first-rate battleships and a fort that can blast your ship out of the sea," the custom tried to give a threat through power projection. ''I got a fleet of a carrier strike group that can blast that precious ship of yours multiple times to oblivion and beyond'' He wanted to say that, but that''s not going to work. Instead, he took a more peaceful action, "Two gold coins? Well, wait for a minute, ok." 1 Platinum= 100 Gold coins 1 Gold = 100 silver coins. 1 Silver = 100 Copper coins. However, although the distance from the CVN was about 30km, with jets, well, the thing that makes the trip took time is the take-off procedure, which took about two minutes, maybe. The commander who was very smart indeed, sent an emergency transmission to send us the gold coins in the form of cargo pod that will be dropped at the ship. After about five minutes, the jet made a low pass flight in afterburner and dropped the cargo pod right at the water behind the rear deck at an exact location. The pilots were good pilots, after all. The sailor fetched the pod, and after that, they opened it and revealing a lot of containers and one of them contained the gold coins. "Wow, what a gold you have there," He complimented him. "Thanks," Lance replied as he shot the custom officer with his FN Five-seveN. The sailor cleaned the body and threw it into the sea and rammed the small boat with the cruiser. The ship started to sail again and revealed the huge port of the city. The Portsmouth Harbor, located in the city of Portsmouth. This is one of the main trade ports of the Soulisphate kingdom. Used to be managed by his father, this town was a thriving society by itself. The ship convoy anchored down at the port and the whole crowd around the port was surprised looking at the largest ship they''ve ever seen. Most of them were scared, but there were some soldiers that had some sinister look. They had a goosebump when they saw that ship "There she is, my hometown, Portsmouth," Lance said as he looked at the port from the side railing of the ship. "Hehe Comrade, Feeling homesick again?" Dima asked him. Some sailor was bringing two HK416 and two cans of ammo and two Glock 17. The sailor gave it to them, and when they docked down at the harbor, the admiral came, "Sir, we will wait until the LMSR ship arrives at the port. Why don''t walk around, sir? We will be your bodyguard for today" he said as he shook Lance''s hand and saluted with the other five sailors that were wearing a navy BDU and holding an M4 on their hands. The sailor lowered a bridge for them to cross, and after they went for the port, the ship stayed there. The bodyguards around them were on standby and also impressed by the medieval era society, "Well, Gentlemen, Let''s find a tavern, shall we?" Dima said to the other sailors. "Sure, I know a bar near here," Lance said as they walked away from the port while carrying a heavy armor rig and an HK416 in each hand. The view of the harbor just spectacular. Merchant traffic was here and there trying to sell their things in the port market. Dima felt an immense amount of hostility from around him. A bunch of people wore criminal clothing, and some of them had a skull on their hat. He readied his rifle every time, but Lance told him to calm down. Nobody wants a shootout in the middle of the day. They walked down the road just like a backpacker. They finally arrived at the bar, ''Ala folks bar.'' "Dima, this is the bar, let''s get in. The room is good as far as I knew," Lance said as he let Dima opened the door. The bar was still empty since it''s still in the afternoon. Dima and Lance took a sit on the barstool while the other sailors sat on a table near the window while putting their weapons on the table. Then this beautiful bartender lady appeared, a woman in his thirties with a light brown hair which was fitting for Dima considering his age. "Hi there, what can I get you?" The bartender asked. "A bottle of Vodka, please," Dima said to the beautiful bartender, but that''s for his age. "Vodka? What is that?" The bartender seemed to be very confused. "The only bartender that is purely stupid and mentally retarded that asked what is vodka to a Slav,," Dima complained. Lance added, "Just give him anything strong." "Well," the bartender grabbed a dark glass bottle contained a golden-ish liquid and poured it into a shot glass and used a magic spell to make it cooler. "Here you go," the bartender gave the drink to Dima. He drunk the whole drink in one shot, and suddenly, he had happy eyes on his face, "Blyat, now this is what I call alcohol. Another one," Dima said as he asked for another one. The bodyguard that guarded Lance and Dima was surprised when they looked at Dima''s behavior that surely already violate the code of conduct. However, they just let it go because officer is known for their attitude of searching for a mistake in any of his/her hated subordinates. "Wow, you''re such a heavy drinker, I don''t know anyone besides me can handle that drink," The bartender said. "What do you mean? Do you want to try it too? It''s on the house," Dima said as he brought up one gold coin and grabbed the bottle from the bar, and poured it into his shot glass. They both started to drink heavily, and that face of Dima had begun to turn red. Lance just wait there to be served until, "What do you want to drink?" A grey-haired woman of the same age as Lance said. This woman was the daughter of the bartender, and she helped her mom. In Lance''s opinion, she is more beautiful than her mother. "Hey there, a beer," Lance said to the beauty bartender. "Ok," she said as she filled a large glass with beer and did the same thing as her mom, which was chilling the glass with a spell. Lance took a sip from the glass and asked the woman, "Do you rent any room?" Lance asked her. "Well, about 2 silver coins per night," the girl said to Lance. "Is this is enough?" Lance said as he handed her a gold coin. The girl held the gold coin in her hand and wiped it with the cloth that is used to clean the glass, "How long are you planning to play this out?" Lance got surprised and put his drink down, "What do you mean?" "Gee, Lance, Getting sunk at sea really messed you up, isn''t it? You Hellish bastard, remember me now?" She said to Lance, that was confused. "Wait, Are you Amara Gardner? Amara the young viscountess? Amara?" Lance asked in full curiosity. [Quest completed. Transferring the reward immediately to the user. [Amara the Pantomath] has been unlocked for the user.] "Yes, I''m Amara. Gee Lance, do we play and go to school together memories flew away in only a month?" Amara said to him. Amara was Lance''s childhood friend. Their parents were pretty close since they grew up together as childhood friends. They played together since the age of four and continued until they grew up and entered the nobility school. Now Lance was wondering, ''Why the hell did she got stripped off from nobility status.'' "So, Amara, what the hell happened?" Lance asked as her mother and Dima were singing an incomprehensible song in English. Though, Dima oftentimes started by singing Kalinka at first. The bodyguard was trying harder to not give a fuck on Dima''s action. Lance tried to hide his embarrassment. "Don''t mind them," Amara said to him. "What the hell did he drink?" Lance asked her. "That? A quadruple distilled whiskey specially made for mom, and she is the only one that drinks it. Seeing that guardian of yours drinks multiple shots without passing out is already impressive," Said Amara as Dima and her mother had already dead drunk. "Follow me, Lance, I will take you around the town so you won''t be lost in the massive change of the city," Amara said as she grabbed a robe and a hood and wore it. She put the shop to close and let Dima and her mother have fun in the closed tavern. He gave Lance a sword, but he blatantly refused. He said his rifle is better. The bodyguards followed them from behind and harassed every soldier that gets in their way. Lance and Amara walked side by side, they walked around the town that had changed so much since he left, "Well, what the hell happened? Are you a viscountess? Who is the town lord now?" Lance asked. "Viscountess? Two months ago, yes. Now, No. After your disappearance, mom and dad were having a divorce resulting, my mom gets stripped off from his nobility status. Luckily, my mom has talent, especially in the alcohol sector. Not stopping there, now my father had been thrown to jail because of suspicion of espionage," Amara said to Lance. "Well, my ship is sunk because of the same reason apparently," Lance said sarcastically. "I know you won''t talk about it. You might want to exchange and put some of that coins at the bank," Amara guided him. Although what Amara had said, the town hadn''t changed much since the last time he was there. Though, he could feel the massive appearance of soldiers and pirates. "What''s with these pirates?" "Since the new townlord came, the pirates use this harbor as a trading Post. Though, it has been well known as a public secret," Amara said as one of the pirates seduce a prostitute. They continued to walk across the busy port, and finally, they stumbled across the bank. "This is the bank Lance, here you can use my mother''s account," Amara said as she gave him a book. "Is it better for me to make another one personalized for me," Lance refused the book. "Fine, do you have 10 gold coins?" Amara asked him. "10? I have a chest of them," Lance said as he entered the not so busy bank. The bank was just like a usual bank. The teller at the front and an entrance for the vault in behind. The security guard was standing near the door of the bank with one wealthy merchant was lining in front of the teller. "Just come to the teller and tell him that you''re going to make an account," Amara said as he sat down in a wooden waiting bench beside a wealthy merchant that wore clothes far better than her. "Ok," Lance said as he stood behind the wealthy merchant. The line was quick, and Lance could get his account fast and deposit all of his gold coins. He exchanged it with 200 silver coins. He got out of the bank with Amira afterward. "That was quicker than I thought," Lance said as he put his bank book on his leather pouch. "Yeah, What''s that black rod that you hold all the time?" Amara asked me. "Hmm, a magic wand, I guess," Lance replied while trying to hide his eagerness to explain his HK416A5. "Cool, Can it do this?" Amara asked as he showed him the [Fire] spell. "What? No," Lance said. Suddenly, yup suddenly, a woman came screaming to the soldier''s direction. "The bank is under attack." Lance added his opinion, "Bank robbery? In the middle of the day? What a ruse," he said as he walked away from the bank towards the farmer''s market. "It could be true, though," Amara said to him. "If it''s true, then that''s the soldier''s business and not mine," Lance straightened his point. In the farmer''s market, the traffic was so heavy. Their intention was to buy some fresh fish for the beer platter for the night. The market was selling fish, a lot of them. "Hehe, That''s a good fish," Amara said to Lance as she pointed her hands at a fresh salmon. "Yes, but we need a smoked one for the platter, am I right?" Lance said. "Right," Amara said as she went searching for a high-quality smoked fish. Once she found one, she put it inside her bag after paying for it, of course. They bought many glasses, and only God knew why. What a not so big surprise for Lance, but big enough surprise for Amara. Dima and his mother were drunk as fuck. Well, no surprise since the alcohol that they drunk has more than 90% in alcohol content. They have passed out in the bar stool with an empty shot glass and a quarter full dark whiskey bottle. "Gee, now who is going to serve the crowds tonight?" Amara said as she slapped her drunk mother multiple times. Lance did the same too with Dima, but more harsh, "You lazy cyka, wake up for blyat sake." "What should we do now? Renting another person will surely be costly. I got an idea, Lance, are you familiar enough with alcohol?" Amara asked Lance as she guided her mother to her bedroom. Lance and his bodyguards carried Dima to a nearby floor and used his large backpack as a makeshift pillow. He put a bottle of first aid for him, which was some drugs for his hangover. Though, Lance also brought some alcohol in the form of Cabernet red wine from the admiral''s office. Though he prefers to drink it with meat. "I''m familiar with alcohol, why?" Lance said as he tried to show off by making a drink inside a collins glass. He added a large rectangular ice cube to the glass and added 15ml of fresh lemon juices into the glass. Then he added 45ml of Gin and 15ml of simple syrup. Then he pops opened a bottle of champagne and filled the glass up. He served it at the bar to Amara, "Here you go, please enjoy." Lance said as he used the same spell as Amara used when she served the drink to him. "What''s this?" Amara asked as she tasted the drink. She took another sip since the drink was delicious, "Hmm, nice one Lance, I don''t know you are good enough in alcohol. What''s the name?" "I forgot it to be honest," he lied. "Ok, help me for tonight, and you and your buddy can stay here as long as you want," Amara said as she finished up the drink. "Ok, hey, help me and her!" Lance said to the other bodyguards that are going to be a server for the day. 11 Later that night, at the tavern Amara the same clothes as him, which Lance found it as weird. Lance felt something strange but didn''t know what it is. She flipped the closed sign, and one-by-one, the customer, came to the tavern and ordered some drink. Lance approached a nobility male customer, "What can I do for you, sir?" "Well, where is the usual server?" The nobility asked Lance about where did Amara''s mom go. "Pardon me, sir, but she has a business need to be taken care of," Lance said as he looked at the man''s request and served him the drink, which was a diluted whiskey. Lance thought that he had another business too. "Sir, do you have any business after this?" Lance asked him. "Indeed, I have a business need to be taken care of with the count. Well, thank you, young man, here is the payment," he said as he gave Lance fifty copper coins from his purse. He left the barstool, and Lance put the coins inside the chest below the bar counter. Amara was stationed in the kitchen since Lance was assigned to the front door, and Amara was in the kitchen. Lance also served as the bartender and the server, which was unusual for the old Lance. He continued to serve everyone afterward, though, with some complaint that the drink is either too cold or too warm. Lance was not a drinker, but he got experience from back when he was an adjutant for a colonel that loves to be drunk. Every time he serves him alcohol, he got a critique every time even though some of his subordinates called him a miracle bartender since he can make a good IV cocktail. Another customer came; this time was a female adventurer. A beautiful one with a sword on a sheath on her hip. "How may I help you, ma''am?" Lance asked her as she sat down on the barstool. "Could you give me anything?" She asked as Lance fulfill her request by making a white Russian. He added 60ml of Dima''s vodka, which was a powerful vodka. He added a clear block of ice cube and combine that with 30ml of coffee liquor and 30ml of heavy cream that was stored inside a bottle. He stirred it with a bar spoon and served it for the female adventurer. "It''s sweet, just like your face," The female adventurer said to him. "Haha ma''am, stop it please," Lance laughed as the female customer brought a whiskey bottle on the bar counter and drank it right in front of him. "Hmm, what kind of whiskey is that ma''am?" "Single malt, want some?" She asked Lance which he kindly refuses to drink a customer''s drink. "Certainly," he said as he made a Japanese highball, which was another diluted whiskey, but with a dazzle of lemon on top. She drank the whole glass and said, "Thank you, handsome, make sure I see you again next week." She dropped one silver coin on the table, and Lance put it inside the chest below the counter. From behind the bar, Amara approached him, "Good work, Ingredients in the kitchen had run out," Amara said as hung up his apron on the kitchen door. "Ok, then five customers left," Lance said as he served five of them, and Amara closed the bar afterward. "I wish you can show me how the nightlife in here," Lance asked Amara to do him a favor. "Sure," Amara said. They went out of the tavern and walked on the night of the Portsmouth. A lot of bar and motel were still open, but they didn''t serve any purpose for them. Lance just wanted to take a walk around the Portsmouth though some of their bodyguards were following them from behind and Lance packed a Glock on his hip. "Amara, whose house is that on top of the hill?" Lance asked as he pointed his hands at a big manor on the hill. "The count. It was your manor, though. He took over the city, and all hell broke loose except for a large amount of traffic from the privateers," Amara answered. The road in front of them was full of carriages, so they took a dark alley, which was dangerous on its own, but they didn''t care. For security, the sailor with their suppressed HK416 entered the dark alley first and a few shots can be heard from the alley. "Sir, Target down," The sailor said as he came back from the alley with a stain of blood on his sleeves. "Nice job, Amara, shall we?" Lance said as he grabbed Amara''s hand and he walked on the alley and saw four dead pirate bodies. Amara and Lance have used to the sight of blood some dead bodies were not a problem for them. And that night was the night that they will never forget. 12 Dima The Bartender and Cook Luckily, one of the bodyguards that always by his side gave him a message from the intel of the carrier strike group. "General, permission to speak freely?" He asked him as he handed down a file written with a pencil because there wasn''t any printer on that bar. "Sure, go ahead," Lance said as he opened the files which contain the file on the intel team and based on the report, the count of the town is the one to blame for his assassination based on the journal and observation. The conclusion was that the count is the contractor considering everything that happened in that port town. "Hmm, our intel surely does it jobs, but what if he is not the suspect?" The private asked Lance. "Well, the evidence of absence is not the absence of evidence," Lance replied. Dima came to him and gave him a plate of beef manhattan which basically meat, mashed potatoes, gravy, and toasted bread. Dima worked as a cook and bartender in the bar to fill his free time while Lance did his investigation. "Comrade, cheer up, and eat this comfort food. Might I serve you some wine too, sir?" Dima said to him. "Thanks, Dima, you will be a good father, you know," Lance said as he closed the book and dug into the food. "At this age, maybe I will marry her even if I can," Dima said, referring to Amara''s mother. "Haha, good enough, you can''t handle a baby after all, and you got two beauties surrounding you, and she can support that drinking habit of yours," Lance said as he put a piece of mashed potato. "Gee, you are always criticizing my drinking habit, aren''t you?" Dima said as he took a seat in Lance''s table since every customer in the bar had been served. He took Lance''s book and read it all out, "You''re not going to get anything from this, you know?" Dima took a conclusion just from reading from the title alone, ''Portsmouth Harbor Traffic Report.'' "Hey, I just want to spent my time. we got him Dima," Lance said. Dima read the book for a brief time, "Who is the lucky guy?" Dima said. "It''s the count, count Ferdinand Glas" Lance said as he ate the gravy with a spoon. "Well, What are we going to do then? Assault his palace? Let''s go" Dima offered his help, which Lance replied with a grin on his face. "What are you talking about guys?" Amara said. Dima left the table to serve another customer, and Amara was not as her shift since the morning shift was for Dima and her mother. "It''s a secret, what do you need sweetie?" Lance asked her. Lance thought for a second then something crossed his mind, "Ok, time to do a clean up" Lance said as he shook Amara''s hand. 13 The Party... The party was located in the landlord''s manor, which situated on a hill near the port. It took about twenty minutes of walking from the ala folks bar. Though, it wasn''t that far either. "SO OUR JOB IS JUST TO POUR WINE?" Lance said as the guests finally left their assignment. "Duh Lance, what are you expecting?" Amara said to him as she cleaned her maid outfit. The landlord came and grabbed a serving of the red wine, "Nice job Amara, where did you find him?" the landlord asked me. "He is Lance, sir, he is my old acquaintance," Amara replied to him. "Lance, who anyway? Oh sorry to be rude, my name is Ferdinand Glas, I am a count of this land," He said. "Pardon me, Count Glas, whose funeral party is this?" Lance replied as he poured a red wine to a guest and gave an evil smile at him. "I see, Well, I take my leave then," Count Glas said as he left both of us alone again. Lance and Amara continued to serve the wine again until the party was over. The nobility that attends the party was wealthy indeed, but something that bothered Lance was the number of privateers that were there. From the horizon of the sea, multiple blips could be seen, which most of the noble was mistake it as, "The stars look beautiful tonight." The stars were CSG of Gerald R Ford. The nobility was drinking and eating all night long. Lance and Amara were sitting on the bench after their job was done. Lance looked around him, searching for his relatives who were already in the open blue sea. "Amara, Why did this man replace my family as the landlord?" Lance asked him. "It''s a long story," she said. Suddenly, the landlord approached lance with several bodyguards behind him. The landlord seems to want to get closer to Lance, but for what? Lance stood up and approached the landlord back and asked, "What can I do for you, sir?" "Lance, can you follow me please?" Ferdinand asked me politely with his intimidating bodyguard. Lance and his bodyguards followed him without any hesitation since a refusal wasn''t an option as far as he can see. The nobleman took him to an empty garden without any nobility, and suddenly, a knight brought out his sword and got put down by Lance''s bodyguard using their MP7. "What did you do to him?" Amara asked him although she had already known the obvious answer. Amara felt relieved knowing that the count had been killed. She was not a type of girl that will scream when she sees dead bodies. She was a war veteran technically. Lance nodded to him and put his finger on top of his mouth, "Shhh, follow the others and left me ok?" Lance showed his confidence in that situation and Amara agreed to Lance''s decision and started to run joining the other nobilities. Now, they focused more on exfiltrating the hot zone. As always, Lance knew what he has to do which is calling a helicopter for exfiltration. Luckily, he always prepared for anything that he might needs. Lance: "Dima, requesting exfiltration ASAP." Dima: "Halo will reach there in about two minutes." Lance: "We got six minutes window before the air support from the capital arrives." A huge crowd of angry knights and soldiers were approaching their position which was in the middle of the manor''s garden. Overall, if this were a real firefight, they would be in the Killzone. Lance loaded a magazine to his MP7 and switched the fire button to full-auto. They proned down and started to aim their PDW at the angry goons. "Open fire!" Lance said as the soldier started to shot 4.6X30mm ammo at the enemies. The soldier fell down one by one as every shot that they fired dropped the enemy soldier one by one. They kept shooting, but the number of soldiers was staggering. Their magazines ran out before the stock of the soldier had run out. Although it was unexpected, Dima''s helicopter arrived just on time. Dima: "Prioritizing elimination of enemy''s threat." The helicopter that he brought was an S-70 Battlehawk, it was a Blackhawk helicopter equipped with unguided rockets and .50 cal minigun on its stubby wings. "In hot, find cover!" The blackhawk fired its minigun and hit several knights and put them down on the ground. Dima: "Rocket salvo, Rocket salvo" Hydra-70 rockets were fired at the attacking soldier and obliterated them into million pieces. The enemies were gone and the LZ had been cleared. Dima landed his helicopter and the team got out of the hot zones and headed back to the cruiser since their mission have been done 14 .....Was a trap.... "LANCE!!!!!!!!" Amara screamed as he was tied down at the dungeon of the manor. Amara was captured because of the suspicion that had arisen about that bartender that brought a traitor to the manor. Well, now she is there to pay the price. Just when Amara was craving for food, The daughter of the duke tore a piece from the bread. Sounds generous right? Well, she put it inside her mouth and spit it right inside Amara''s mouth. "Gotta keep my precious toy alive you know?" she said as she wiped her mouth. Amara said, "Look do me a favor and get me out of here. In return, I will make sure nobody will put you two feet below the sea." "Hahaha, that''s why you''re my favorite toy, the others broke so easily you know?" She said as she poured the water to Amara''s mouth. The water was not an usual water. It was fucking boiling water which was poured straight into Amara''s mouth. She was laughing as she saw Amara''s agony drinking that boiling water. Amara spit out the water and, "Gee, a dog should be obedient. Guys, pour the water to her mouth please," she said as the soldiers poured the boiling water right into Amara''s mouth. She laughed more when Amara screamed in agony. "Puehh, Dear you fucking daughter, how long are you going to try?" Amara said as the daughter was reading the book titled, "Interrogation Method". It sent a chill down Amara''s skull. "Ok, you''ve finished," She said as she grabbed a bucket of water and the soldier put Amara on the ground and tied him up. She put the clothing on his head and started to pour water on Amara''s head. Yup, she was waterboarded. Amara mumbled and struggle as Amara got drowned in that water. She knew how to handle this, but survivability in that kind of situation is largely unknown and the situation had been made worse by the fact that the person next to him was looking to torture her just for fun. The water continued to pour down like rain to the cloth made Amara drowned. Slowly, she lost her consciousness. Sue took that opportunity for a rest from that living shit hole. The guard hanged him again in the cell and left him. And yeah, another bucket of ice-cold water was poured down her head to wake him up, the cycle of torture continues. A bit of whip and a bit of hot metal rod. Really damaging, Amara doubted that any person had survived this far with this kind of torture. "Wakey, wakey Amara," Count Ferdinand woke him up and slapped him right in the face. "What the fuck do you want now? Taking my honor and my glory? Now what? Taking my life?" Amara asked as she struggled herself to release herself from the rope. The soldier cleaned it up and threw another bucket of cold water to his body, Amara rambled because he simply can''t talk anyone since it was not necessary. She just wants to get out and killed the count''s "So, Amara, how did you survive? I wonder," Ferdinand said as he kicked him in the nuts again. "Fuck off," He said as the soldier put a dirty rag again inside Amara''s mouth and Ferdinand whip her about a hundred times in a row. "Where is your wife? Does she don''t feel sad knowing that her husband and daughter is this cruel?" Amara asked. "Don''t you feel kind of bad doing things like this?" Amara said. "Nope, my wife doesn''t know this and I''m enjoying it right now," Ferdinand said as she put the whip on the ground and replaced it with the torch that was hanged on the wall. He touched the torch on Amara''s torso and produced quite a burn marks. He continued to do so until Lance exhausted. "Exhausted yet?" Ferdinand asked as he looked at Amara''s body which was full of blood and wounds. The pants that he wore had already full of holes and burn marks. Amara''s face looked very miserable considering a day full of miserable torturing. The count left her inside the dungeon alone with a guard. Amara was hanged up that night too and he couldn''t sleep at all. She loses her hope of surviving since the manor was heavily guarded and the person that knew this tragedy was only Lance. "AMARA!!" 15 ....Then Lance Came Lance equipment was HK416 with the same configuration, a full set of dark Multicam camo uniform with the digital colored Level IV MTV body armor and the same protector as Dima''s. The difference was that the helmet that he brought was a FAST helmet with headphones and ballistic visor. He also wore a night vision goggles on his head. Surprisingly, he also brought a Carl Gustav M4 recoilless rifle. Lace put the backpack beside Amara and opened it. Dima unloaded the bandage from the backpack and handed down his HK416 to him, "Lance, protect me as I patch her wounds," Dima said as he opened a saline disinfectant aerosol spray and sprayed it across Amara''s entire body including her chest and her private parts. Lance protected his back by aiming the HK416 at the hallway. "Holy shit Amara, who the hell did this at your vagina?" Lance asked as he applied the bandage across Amara''s torso and belly and back. After finishing bandaging the whole body, he grabbed the HK416 from Lance''s hand, "Well Amara, you can change your clothes with the clean one that I brought, and you can bandage your vagina by yourself right?" Lance said as he pointed his hand at the backpack with the uniform on it. "Wait, Lance, are you really Lance?" Amara asked Lance as she changed her torn maid outfit to the clean navy BDU. She bandaged her private parts after Lance applied some antibiotic ointment at her privates. She wore a new pair of underwear (Yes, Female can wear a boxer). "Ready comrade?" Dima asked as Lance brought all the leftover medical supplies and injected adrenalin and morphine into Amara''s body. "Let''s go, Tovarishch," Lance stood up and carried the backpack on his back. They left the dark dungeon, and they stumbled with a soldier that charged at them with their spear in the front of their body, "Dima, you take care the one on my three, and I will take care the one on the twelve," Lance said as he loaded a grenade into the grenade launcher. "Roger that comrade," Dima shot a grenade to the charging soldier and blasted a few of them while Lance shot an accurate barrage of 5.56 bullets at the soldier. Most of them were unarmored so they can eliminate them quickly. "Yup, some mage threw a fireball once I got detected," Dima said. They were in the middle of the manor since the dungeon was located deep inside the mansion, the mansion was on alert since Dima wasn''t that stealthy. On the way, They stumbled across the count''s daughter. "INTRU...." She tried to shout before Lance put a bullet inside her head. "Target down," Lance said. Suddenly, an arrow was shot to Dima''s head but bounced off thanks to the protection from the Altyn helmet, They saw the archers and shot them with their HK416. "What a nice piece of Russian tech, huh?" Lance commented as he looked at the broken arrow that was shot to his body armor. "Let''s move," Dima ran again with the heavy body armor. No door can stop them, and literally, no barricade can stop them. A barricade of tables and chairs? Lance: "Dimitri, there is a barricade at the direction of ten." Dima: "No problem, comrade." A grenade from the M203 grenade launcher was launched to the homemade barricade, which was covering the mage from the bullets. The tables flew into multiple directions, thus killing some of the mages and mortally wounding them. Lance and Dima kicked the remnants of the barricade after the soldiers were dead. As they ran across the big manor, Lance had an idea, "How about we search for treasure?" "And be dead by an artillery barrage from the battleship in the port. No thanks, comrade. We will be extracted right on the beach, which was far enough from the port," Dima said as he kicked a door that got on our way. Lance shot his 40mm grenade to an archer through the open window of the manor, the archer was flying once they got hit by the grenade. They got out of the manor via a broken wall. However, the count brought heavy artillery, which was the knight. They were a person in their heavy armor which sword couldn''t penetrate, nobody will mess with them, well except for them. "Lance, open up the way for us," Dima said as Lance put a HE fragmentation round to his recoilless rifle. "Roger that Comrade, Back area clear," Lance peeked at behind him. "Firing," An 84mm projectile flew and hit the knight. The knight remnants were scattered, and they used this opportunity to get away from the town. They ran in their heavy armor across the empty port town until they got intercepted by pirates. Well, not ordinary pirates, but a smart one because one of them was a mage. "Kill this traitor," The pirate leader said until a grenade launcher rounds hit him and his crew. With modern weaponry, and killing will be quick. "Gee, what a nuisance," Lance said as he opened his under-barrel grenade launcher. Another 40mm grenade round was put inside the chamber. The whole port was looking for him. In fact, the whole privateer, pirates, and soldier was looking for Lance Sharrington, the traitor. So far, they had spent six magazines, four grenades, and one 84mm ammo. "What kind of thing is going to extract us?" Lance asked Dima. "With an SH-60 Seahawk, cmon, we still have a long way to go," Dima said as Lance noticed a burn mark on his body armor. The beach that they used as an extraction zone was far from the port town, but they were running very fast although with that heavy equipment. Lance said, "Why can I be such an idiot?" "Hmm, why?" Dima asked. "The number of pirates in this town, the fact that my family was assassinated by pirates, and the fact that a landlord was their contractor. Damn, Such idiocy," Lance said. "Tovarishch, our first job is to get out of here alive, focus on doing that job will ya," Dima said as he put a C4 on the fortress that was protecting the town. The charges blew off and revealing the soldier that was stationed in that specific room. Lance dumped his whole magazine at the soldier and searched for the gate that they were looking for, The gate that leads outside of the city. The gate was guarded by multiple steel coated carriage, so their bullet had no effect. "Comrade, blast that gate," Dima said as he provided a suppressing fire against the mage spells. Lance loaded HEAP ammunition at the launcher and fired it before he warned Dima. The blast of the HEAP rounds hit the armored carriage and exploding it into several metal pieces. The gate had a hole in it that fit for both of them. They threw a flashbang at the crowd as they ran away from that small hole on the gate. They ran until they stumbled upon a helicopter parked on the beach. "Wait, Dima, I thought a pilot is going to pick us up," Lance said as he looked at the empty helicopter. "Well, I''m going to be the pilot, Dima said as he put his body armor inside the cargo compartment and wore the helicopter helmet. He flipped a few knobs as Lance put a strap on his body and attached the hook and found an abandoned M240B inside the helicopter. He took the machine gun and started to blast a bunch of 7.62 mm rounds at the pursuers. The helicopter took off and left for the aircraft carrier in the ocean. Lance laid his body down on the helicopter and closed the door. "Dima, I don''t care who they are, but we are going to kill him," Lance said as he laid down on the floor of the seahawk and Amara sat down on the floor. 16 Before The Attack Admiral Andersen observed the port every day from the radar and noticed that the number of battleships and frigates in that port was increasing and forming a naval barricade. Since that ambush, Admiral retreated his CSG for about a hundred kilometers from the port. At the same time, they''re planning the attack plan. In the Admiral room, Dima had a meeting with the Admiral concerning the capabilities of the enemy. Though, Dima''s idea was purely Shock and Awe to the enemy. Nothing can stop them from doing that for sure since the enemy didn''t have any counter-attacks. "But General Vyacheslavovich, we simply don''t want to take a risk," Admiral Andersen said after he heard Dima''s plan. "Please call me General Dimitri, that name is too long," Dima said to him. "Ok, General, I agree with your idea of shock and awe, but I don''t want General Sharrington to take part in the operation with a super hornet, it simply can''t carry big enough firepower," Admiral Andersen said. "Look, Admiral, one of our cruisers, is more than enough to take care of their whole naval fleet. But the goal of shock and awe can only be shown by a big amount of force," Dima replied. "Fine, but get an F-15, I don''t think a hornet will carry enough firepower for him," Admiral Andersen said. "Ok, We agree, and the operation will commence tomorrow at 0900 hours," Dima said as he looked at the clock, which shown at 1800. "How will you transport the general?" Andersen asked as he was going back to the island. "Easy, I will be his wingman," Dima said as he left the briefing room for Lance''s quarter and they took a shower. After they took a shower, They walked to the flight deck, and an F/A-18E was parked on it. Lance wore a flight suit and a g suit and had his flight helmet on his head. Dima was the same too. Each of the jets has its own name painted near the cockpit. They entered their own jet. The magnetic flight catapult was attached to the jet and the shooter; the person wearing that orange vest gave them the signal. They took off from the CSG and heading to the island again for a change of plane. During the trip, they were on the cruising speed without the afterburner so they can travel the 2000 km relatively with good fuel consumption. There was only a dark sky and ocean along the trip. So Dima decided to ask Lance about his previous deployment. Dima: "What was your most dangerous flight mission?" Lance: "What do you mean? In my young year or in my old year? Well, there was no most dangerous mission since they all were dangerous. However, I got a weird mission when I was 23." Dima: "Ok, tell me." Lance: "So Here is the story...." Today was a typical day, but this time I got a contract of eliminating a rogue fighter jet flying across the sea of japan and on heading of south Chinese sea. Well, my loadout was using the Su-57 "Felon," which was a state-of-the-art jet fighter during that era of Russia''s second glory. They fixed the unstealthy part of that aircraft and made it as smooth as the F-22, and they added more powerful engines that could give about 60.000 lbf of thrust. Basically, they fix every flaw that that jet fighter has. They fixed the unstealthy air intake and etc. The design changed a lot, but still had some of the distinctive flanker design. Their avionic had changed a lot too, well, that was because Russia had turned into a semi-capitalistic country too. Ok, back to the story, I was taking off from the Vladivostok international airport. I was equipped with a full stealth loadout and took off to the territorial water of Japan. Well, I got authorization from their government for entry, although I was in a Russian fighter jet. I was heading over to the sea of japan before suddenly I got intercepted by an F-15J. Still, something was weird about that Japanese eagle. The whole plane was painted in shining yellow, and the cockpit wasn''t made of glass at all. That fighter jet was not a usual eagle by its margin. It was very agile. Well, too agile, since when an F-15 could put a sudden pugachev? Anyway, I started to dogfight them, as usual, in my agile Russian jet fighter aircraft, I pulled a close pass and launched a missile from the bay of my jet fighters. The missile was launched, and I was surprised to see the jet dodge it quite easily. Suddenly other fighter jets appeared, a red JAS 39C "Gripen." Same as the F-15J, the jet looked didn''t have any cockpit, and the jet was shining in red. Gee, I almost thought that the JASDF did something weird again, but no. This fighter jet was agile as hell, even me in the Su-57 was having a very hard time fighting them. The table was turned against me, and now I''m the one that was trying to evade the missile which accuracy only god can explain; very fucking accurate. I did many violent maneuvers that I never thought I could do. My eyes were having Redout multiple times. Banking maneuver, everything, I had tried to do it, but just because I can''t get the upper in that dogfight situation. Then another problem came, a blue F/A-18E came from a distance; the same config as before, shining and no cockpits whatsoever. I did many maneuvers and fired a few of my missile until it ran out. The fuel gauge on my jet also showed an almost empty state. I almost gave up on hope until this one person from the merc business that I very knew about came. Like an angel from heaven, he did a violent maneuver, even more, brutal than me. His jet was not an F-22C nor the same Su-57; it was a joint engineer fighter jet between the US and Russia. The design incorporating the forward-swept wing of the Su-47 and the sleek design of the YF-23, it was the actual state-of-the-art aircraft; the Lockheed Sukhoi X-02A fighter jet. The combination of American technology and Russian maneuverability in an aircraft. The aircraft was very agile and fast, the rumor said that it can go toe-to-toe with around 30 F-22C and 20 Su-57. It seems impossible right, but trust me, it''s the truth. The plane forward-swept wing folded and unfolded during the flights. He shot them down one by one without the same haste as I did. The jet utilizes its superb missile to shot them down, and its machine gun is just like a guided missile, very accurate. I turned off my afterburner and saw the jet that I supposed to shot was falling down one by one. The jet fighter that was shot down didn''t eject their pilot, which raise another question for me. Are they really humans? I turn my attention to the sudden appearance of an unknown fighter jet. I saw his wing, and he had no insignia on his wings whatsoever. Only a ''UN" underneath his cockpit and a Mobius ribbon on his wings. I never thanked him, and he suddenly flew away, leaving me behind to fly back to Vladivostok. END OF FLASHBACK Dima: "Wow, I never thought anime-like things exist IRL." Lance: "Neither do I. I heard that they were genetically engineered fighter jets that were produced in 2019. But I don''t believe that either. The point was I got my money." Dima: "Genetically engineered? They live?" Lance: "I don''t know. Maybe, though, I heard some girly voice from my headset back then." Dima: "What about that other fighter jet? Did you know it?" Lance: "The X-02A "Wyvern"? That was a fighter jet produced by the US and Russia to counter the massive amount of jet on the rebel hand. Yes, the rebel had fifth-gen fighter jets back then. However, all of them were the basic variant and not the improved one like my Sukhoi, but still better than this jet that we ride now. Piloting that was every pilot wet dream, only the UN that had it back in the day." Dima: "How about the pilot?" Lance: "The pilot? I don''t know much about him. He was known simply as the ribbon fighter or the grim reaper by the rebel." Dima: "I wish I can try that X-02 fighter jet that you are talking about." Lance: "I wish I could too." Though Lance''s story was short, the trip came to an end as they saw the runway of the island. They landed their aircraft there and switched to another aircraft, which was an F-15E "Strike Eagle." 17 Assault Begin Well, they left the cockpit closed, and the fumes keep them warm during the winter. Still, they were sleeping loudly. Meanwhile, the mechanics were busy fitting the missile and bomb into the plane. The jet was equipped with two GBU-28 bunker-buster and two AGM-84 missiles. Overall, he got the heavy artillery to destroy anything that the flight squadron from the CSG can''t kill. "Morning Dima," Lance said as he turned on the engine of the F-15. He switched a few dials and knobs; thus, the jet engine started and producing a sound that had more than a hundred decibels. The best alarm clock you can ever have. The roar of the Pratt \u0026 Whitney F100 jet engines echoed on the hangar. "Is it morning yet?" Dima said as the skies were still dark. "Wake up old-timer, the morning came a bit late in winter," Lance said as the mechanic gave him an ok sign. Lance checked the flaps, aileron, etc. while Dima asked the mechanic for something. "Could you bring us a breakfast bar?" He said to one of the young mechanics. The mechanic brought out four breakfast bar from his pocket and gave it to Dima. He closed the cockpit and adjusted the climate control of the jet. The jet came to a pleasant cold temperature, which was an ideal temperature. They got on the runway then they asked for authorization from the air traffic controller, which wasn''t that necessary since the skies were clear from traffic today. Lance: "This is Eagle 2, requesting take off and refueling at sector six bravo." ATC: "Copy that Eagle 2, the skies are clear." Lance: "Roger that." Lance pushed his throttle forward and turned on the afterburner of the jet, and the jet took off shortly and leaving that island once again. Once he got to the cruising altitude, he turned off the afterburner of the Jets and cruise at a cruising speed of 1000km/h. Lance: "Damn, I miss the liquid engines." Dima: "(Munching sound) Liquid what?" Lance: "Liquid engines, the one that used the heat from a nuclear reactor to heat up the engines instead of fuel combustion." Dima: "What''s so special about those engines?" Lance: "The usage of afterburners in an indefinite amount of times. It was implemented when I was 30." Dima: "Gee, I know how the afterburner is very important, but I never heard it used for cruising." They continued their journey for 1,8 hours until they stumbled upon the F-15s squadron, E-3 Sentry AWACS, and a KC-135 tanker. They initiated the refueling and had a conversation with the other pilot and the female boom operator of the tanker. Tanker: "Sir, what are your WSO eating back there?" Tanker: "You haven''t taken breakfast, sir?" Lance: "Not yet, could you give me the snack bar, general?" Dima handed one bar to him, and Lance opened the packaging and ate it. Lance: "Now, I have my breakfast." Tanker: "And what are you usually drink on breakfast, sir?." Lance: "Water, mineral water." Tanker: "Weird, usually people drinks coffee, especially the black one during breakfast. I drink black coffee too." Lance: "Well, the person aboard this jet drink clear water for their breakfast, but the person behind me is way weirder than me." Tanker: "Really, what does the sir behind you drink?" Dima: "Water, Russian tap water." Tanker: "Does he mean pure water coming from behind the tap itself?" Lance: "Nope, Vodka." Tanker: "Why don''t you drink something more colorful, sir? like tea." Lance\u0026Dima: "We are not British." They finished the refueling and joined with the other F-15. Some of them were F-15C, and the others were F-15E. Lance was the leader of the F-15E. Eagle 1: "Good morning, general, I will be the leader of the air superiority fighter, and you will be the leader for the ground strike fighter. The odd number is the F-15C, and the even are the F-15E." Lance: "Copy that, mission objective?." Eagle 1: "Provide air support for the ground troops below and destroy any high-value target. It will be marked on your HUD as TGT." Lance: "Wilco." AWACS: "This is AWACS Heavycloud, nice to be flying with you, general." Lance was flying to the town, and he asked Dima, "What''s the plan?" "Shock and awe is the plan. We don''t need a strategy for now. The cruisers will be in the front followed by the destroyer and launched their missile to the ground targets, and we the fighters are there to secure air superiority and provide support for the troops," Dima said as the squadron flew over the CSG which were sailing closer to the port. "What a beautiful view, the calm before the storm," Lance said as he buzzes the tower of the CVN-78. He flew to the port and had already seen multiple first-rate battleships were stationed there, but he had no fear since he was flying high above the skies. The battleships could serve a good target practice for his AGM-84 ''Harpoon" missile. "0859," Dima said as he read the clock and checked the LANTIRN instrument to launch the A-G missile. Lance: "Eagle 2, Harpoon missile fired." The AGM-84 harpoon was fired from Lance''s F-15E strike eagle. The 750 kg missile that was fired from the jet sunk the battleship with a big and magnificent explosion. The barricade had a hole in it afterward, and the barricade became ineffective. The admiral of the CSG announced the start of the operation via an open channel, "Ladies and Gentlemen, let the assault begins." Multiple "Tomahawk" LAM was launched from the destroyer. 18 The Fall of The Portsmouth city "I don''t care what the hell are you are saying, but calling all of this was a job of two-person alone is pure bullshit at the highest order," He said to five of most his trusted knight. "No, sir, that night was truly the work of two-person, the green man and the grey man," One of the knights said. "I''m tired of hearing your bullshit knight," Ferdinand said. "It''s true, my Lord, the green man, came with a huge backpack and a weird contraption on his hands and forcing entrance to the manor, but we refuse. He threw a slab of brick that suddenly exploded," the knight said. "A brick? are you trying to fool me?" Ferdinand asked menacingly. "It''s true, my Lord. Our mages shot spells and arrows at him, and he barely flinches from the attack, and a loud sound appeared from his contraption. He released the survivor of the Sharrington family with the immediate help of the grey man," The knight said. "Enough of your bullshit, is the naval blockade is ready?" Ferdinand asked. "Yes, my lord, you can see it by yourself," The knight said as he gave count Ferdinand the telescope. "Ooo, such a magnificent grey battleship you have there," Count Ferdinand said as he looked at the sea with his authentic telescope. "Excuse me, my Lord, but my ships aren''t grey," The knight said. "Then, who are them?" Ferdinand said as multiple fireworks appeared from the grey ship. Those were not fireworks. They were the tomahawk missiles that were launched from the cruisers and the 20mm cannon from the bushmaster autocannon which was sinking the ship in a fast and elegant manner. The jets behind them were terrifying as well. The Tomahawk missiles contained around 450kg of explosives each. Assured destruction in a nutshell. "What in God''s name is that?" Ferdinand''s last word before his manor got struck by three of those cruise missiles. Five F-15s in an arrow formation flew on top of the heavy damaged manor with a roar from the afterburner itself. Each of them spread out into multiple direction to do their own objectives. "Eagle 1,3,5 provide air superiority by fighting off the wyvern, Eagle 2,4,6 provides destruction for the ground troops. Eagle 1 out," The squadron of F-15E made a low pass across the town while dropping a bunker buster at the manor to destroy the dungeon. Lance: "Bunker buster away." AWACS: "Target destroyed." Multiple CBU-100 or otherwise known as Mark 20 Rockeye were dropped at the fortress around the city by the squadron of the F/A-18F. One of those bombs contain about 247 small bomblets, an F/A-18F carry ten of them, and there were two squadrons that were launched by that config. A squadron had about 12 planes at its disposal. So about 240 of those bombs were ready to be dropped from the skies. The fortress got obliterated in one strafe as the F/A-18F dropped one of its bombs from each plane. The bomb exploded in a similar manner of hitting an ant with multiple firecrackers. According to Lance''s quick math, it''s about more than 5000 small explosions on the fortress itself self and it just from 24 of those bombs. The pilot did a violent vertical climb after the bombing. The Marines had already arrived in their armored vehicle and tanks from the beach, thanks to the LCAC and the amphibious assault group. The M1 Abrams rolled in the sand of the beach as they approached the rubble of the fortress that surrounds the town. They blast a hole on the city wall and drove through it like a maniac. Eagle 4: "Sir, there is a defensive structure in the direction of 300." Eagle 6: "It is a bunker, sir, should we destroy them?" Lance: "Eagle 2 here, sure." AWACS: "All aircraft be advised, an unidentified flying object coming from the west." Eagle 1: "Roger that, Heavycloud.'' The 3 F-15E head to that direction and dropped four GBU-28 bunker-buster and exploded it on impact. The tanker was having fun too shooting at the knight that tried to fight the enemy that can''t be touched. Their horses were running in agony as their user fell down or splashed into a lump of mince meat. The cannon from the 125mm cannon in the M1 Abrams penetrated every cover that they can find. Even one of the risk-taker ram a nobility carriage with the tank to kill a pirate that was hiding behind it. The APC was busy shooting its bushmaster cannon at the running pirates. The battle was indeed the showcase of power, the mage was speechless looking at the dragon that they spell can''t reach, the carriage that only gets angrier if you shot at it and the enemy that you can''t see. The Tank platoon was pushing to the nearest Soulisphate defense post and acted as a guard dog and waited there. The attack was successful, marked by the flag of Russia that was flown above the ruins of the manor. The armored vehicles were sent to the port, and the destroyers and the cruisers were on full standby on after the attack in case the Soulisphate kingdom decided to send a counter-attack. The cruisers were docked at the port to rest the crew. The F-15Cs were busy chasing the wyvern that was entering the airspace right after the marines had successfully captured the town. The wyvern that was ridden by the mage was shot down by the AIM-120 AMRAAM that was carried by the F-15C. "Dima, we have successfully taken over the town," Lance said as he did a subtle left bank while seeing the burning and smoking town. The civilians were wounded, and all of the supports from the Soulisphate kingdom was cut off. "It''s no time to rest now comrade, we have to rebuild this town," Dima said to him. "But yeah, the town had been liberated, time to do some communism and eliminate the nobility from power," Dima said to him. "Ok, all units, RTB, refuel with KC-130 at sector Charlie five," Lance said as he banked his jet following the F-15C formation. "Lance, I want to tell you that we had an airbase not so far from here. About 100 kilometers from here, the carrier strike group from the USS Ronald Reagan has found an island and built an airfield there. And also another good news that an oil rig has been put in about 200 kilometers from the island. So yeah, we are very lucky indeed," Dima said. "What? And you wait for me to capture the town to tell me this?" Lance replied as he banked his jet and split from his squadron. Lance: "To all planes, Eagle 2 requesting permission to separate from the eagle squadron." Eagle 1: "Permission granted general." Lance and Dima''s F-15E flew away from the formation and turned on the afterburner of the jets. The F-15 left the combat zone and the town that was burning to ash. Truly the Portsmouth had become second Iraq for the soldiers stationed there. Unless they could win the hearts and minds of the people, the region will just turn into another middle east where money was pouring like rainwater without a significant result that they wanted. "Lance, what do you want to do with the town? Now the town is liberated, and you basically are the leader," Dima asked him. "I don''t know, maybe we think about it later," Lance said as the jet left the horizon and landed on the newly formed airbase on another island. 19 Aftermath of The Attack. He walked around the town while carrying his HK416 on his hands and M249 LMG on his back. He wore a Navy BDU with a black helmet, he also wore an IMTV without the additional protector like the groin, elbow, etc. He looked around at the rubble of a building, the citizens were surrounding the remnants of their houses and their workplaces. Some of them were crying because of their houses while the others were crying on top of their love ones. Anyone can clearly saw the mourning aura from everyone around. The middle of the streets, which was used to be full of carriages, now full of massive cremation of the dead bodies. The alleyway that was used by the pirates to extort him and Amara now were buried under the burning rubble of the building. The seagulls were eating on the dead bodies of the pirate. The happy place had changed into a sad and sorrowful place. However, things were made way worse by the presence of the Soulisphate soldier that sometimes got into hot and almost deadly verbal arguments. Well, almost everything was under control, Almost... "MOVE THE WAY FOR THE PRINCESS!!!" A knight in front of a carriage shouted. "I beg your pardon, sir, but traffic is not allowed in this road. Please take a detour either to the left or right," The soldier said politely. The soldier was a member of the Marines. He held his M4 and wore a green beret. Lance clearly can see the badge Raider on his clothes, he was not an ordinary grunt. Lance approached him and asked, "Soldier, let me handle this. Sir, can I talk to the princess?" "Do you know who you are talking to?" He shouted because he was a knight, and Knight is a nobility status. "Do you know who you are talking to? Let me meet the princess," Lance said as the 125mm smoothbore gun of the M1A2 Abrams was turned against his head. "This thing will shoot your princess until no remnants of her are left," Lance threatened. "You!!!" The knight rambled, but he did his job, which was calling the princess. The princess came down from the carriage. She wore a very white dress and wore black shoes. She approached Lance, "Who are you?" She asked him. "Princess Isabella, Don''t you think it''s a coincidence?" Lance said as he took off his sunglasses. "Well, well, well. Rising from the grave, huh? Mr. Sharrington, let''s talk to somewhere more privately, shall we?" She asked as she walked to the nearest back alley, followed by Lance from behind. "Princess, don''t do that," The knight said, but his hand got grabbed by the Marine, "Sorry pal, but this is our turf." "Mr.Sharrington, what the fuck?" She said. Lance retreated and changed the weapon into the HK416, and aimed it at her head again, "Strip!" "Are you nuts, Lance? It''s me, Isabella, don''t you recognize me?" She asked. "Now!!" Lance shouted as the princess surrendered and stripped her clothes one by one, starting from her shoes and then her clothes and so on. Lance was right since there was a hidden dagger on his shoes. "Well, it looks like you are clean, so Isabel, what do you want to talk about, or do you want a special service of putting you on the ground right now?" Lance asked. "Lance, what the hell? What do you mean?" The princess said while wearing his undergarment, only, which was Victorian underwear. "What do you mean?" Lance shouted angrily. "Marking my family as a traitor and killing them wasn''t enough?" Lance said. "Traitor? What the hell? I don''t fucking know. It''s all the count''s doing, not us. I know you are killed, and I felt sorry for that, but there was nothing I can do," She shouted back. "Then, who? Give me a name!" Lance shouted again. "I don''t fucking know," She shouted as loud as she can before she dropped on the ground, and she started to cry. Well, as expected, although she was drafted as well, she never saw the front lines like Amara and him. "A NAME!!" Lance shouted back and grabbed the princess by the neck, and used his combat knife to hold her up. The princess furthered cried, and Lance let her go since she was crying. "Gee, I never thought that you will be broken this easy. Ok, I will ask politely, does the kingdom got involved in my assassination?" He asked. "No, It''s just the count and his allies. My father doesn''t get involved," She said. "That''s all I need, dress up," Lance said as the princess stood up and started to wear her clothes again. She left him after she slapped Lance right in the face. She ran back at her carriage, and the convoy returned to the city gate. "Sir, are you ok?" The Marine asked him. "I''m ok, thank you, corporal. Clean this mess, please," Lance said as he left that roadblock. However, not everything was bad in the town. For example, the amount of crime in the city is way lower than it was. There were no more pirates and no more bandits. Although the lack of help from the Soulisphate, there were several public kitchens that were set up by the Navy. The citizen was lining up on the tent and enjoyed their food at a nearby bench or table that was put by the Navy. For the taste, well, the Navy was famous because of its food. Lance headed for the ala folks bar, the bar now was the only standing building on that block. The tavern itself was broken with a lot of shattering glass and broken walls. "Morning," Lance said as he opened the door, but it fell off the moment he opened it. "Morning Lance, we are closed now," Amara said as he was sitting alone in a broken table near the window. "I just want to pay a visit, have you grab a meal at the public kitchen yet?" Lance asked as he went for the booze at the bar stall. "Not yet, maybe later. So, Lance, this is your epic comeback, huh?" Amara said as glass fell off from the broken table. Lance took a seat in front of Amara and said, "Sorry." "Sorry? For what? You should do this the moment you arrive. You put a blank canvas on this city, though thing looks worse now, some of the other merchants including me feel better without the Soulisphate tax collector," Amara said to him with a pause, "Lance, bring back the glory of your family ok. Your family will be so proud up there." "Yeah," Lance said as he got out of the bar and continued to take a walk on the city. The dead bodies were burned in a pit near the town. The black smoke rose as high as it can. The gloomy city got more gloomy as rain fell down in the city. The sewer began to be filled by reddish water. The drop of water began to wet Lance''s uniform. The emergency tents that were built by the Marines, now full of refugees ranging from child to a very old person. The children were playing around the tent; meanwhile, their parents were eating the meal that the soldiers gave. ''New things for them, huh?'' Lance thought as he looked at the happy children that were running around the tent. ''Our journey hasn''t finished yet. I must search the perpetrator until the very end and make him pay. This will be a tough long way for me, but I will gladly enjoy it. Lance, please, leave the rest for Grandpa here. Let''s put aside our foolishness first.'' 20 Slice Of Life In The Portsmouth City The city of Portsmouth had been stabilized. The citizen activity had resumed back to normal, although the port was quite empty since the propaganda from the Soulisphate kingdom has forbidden its trader to enter that port. So the trading had decreased significantly, although not really affecting the citizen thanks to humanitarian help from Lance and his armies. The manor had turned into an army base for lance, and his armies and an airfield had been stationed in the Portsmouth. ''System open stat.'' [Showing user capabilities] Level: 70 Unit available: [Locked] -Land Vehicle: 5000 -Water Vehicle: 2000 -Air Vehicle: 3000 Unit Summoned:[Locked] -Land Vehicle: 1000 -Water Vehicle: 800 -Air Vehicle: 400 Base available: -AFB: 2 -AB:1 -NB:3 Combat-Ready Personnel Available: 500.000 [User can summon any weapon that is produced below the year of 2010 except for quest rewards] [Prototype weaponry now can be summoned] [Logistic personnel will be handled automatically without reducing the combat-ready personnel] [User can summon a building or base] [Upgrades For User and personnel are now available] [Closing] ''system open quest list.'' [Showing available quests for user] Main Quest: [Developing] The region that the user has captured needs to be managed. The user has to manage the region and made it into a thriving region. The user also must keep an eye out on the rebellion and attack from the Soulisphate kingdom. Objective: Trade/day: 1000/10000. Per Capita Income: 50 silver coins per person/ 4 gold coins per person. Ship anchored per day: 2/50. Visitor per day 100/200. Reward: Automatic advancement of society to the information age [Citizen will be obedient in every action that you take. Any critique will be mild and objective]. Magic and sorcery will thrive, too, with the technology. User''s soldiers can use magic. Side Quest: [Ammo production] Find all of the three mines and oil spot on the Portsmouth Objective: Mines found: 0/3. Oil spot found: 0/3 Reward: Self-sustainable military and defense forces. [Closing] "Holy shit, what a task," Lance said as he hit his desk in the base of the Portsmouth. The office had an air conditioner on it and a comfortable chair for him. It also had a digital TV map for his operation. "What''s the wrong general?" Melody opened the door and greeted him because of the loud banging noise from the desk. "Nothing, I just have to boost someone''s income by eight times," Lane commented. "How is the relation between our town and the Soulisphate kingdom?" Melody asked him as she sat down on a couch. Dima came to the office while still wearing his Spetsnaz outfit, which was an Altyn helmet and a black body armor, "Tovarishch, what happened? Do we need another diplomatic solution again?" He asked. "Enough of your diplomatic solution for this month comrade," Lance complained as he continued to do his paperwork. "Want to go back to the ala folks bar after this tovarishch? Dima asked. "Ok," Lance worked very fast like he was possessed by a spirit, and the paper was smoking as hell. The paperwork had finished in a blink of an eye, and Lance readied himself for another drink by going back to his personal quarter. He changed his green M84 woodland camo into medieval clothes, which were his loosely fit white shirt and black pants and boots. He grabbed his personal armored car key, which was a car key for the BMW 7 series 2010 which its comfortability was far beyond any luxurious carriage at that time. He headed out of the rebuilt manor and put the car key inside the car and turned on the engine. As usual, Dima was sitting on the back of the BMW while Lance was driving the vehicle. Dima was wearing a tavern employee outfit, which was very fitting for him. That''s because he was a part-time worker for the bar to replace Amara when she had done his shift. Who in the right mind will allow a four-star general to serve in a bar? Well, he likes it, and it boosts our intel-gathering by a margin since some of the adventurers were not that opened to the soldiers around the region. Well, not yet. They rode the car and got out of the manor, which was guarded by multiple guards around the palace. They observed the town, which was far safer since the corrupt Soulisphate''s soldiers had been replaced by the marines. The M1A2 abrams and M1126 ICV were parked near the vital location like the bank, the manor, and the port. The citizen looked far happier since their interaction with the soldiers were friendly and can easily win their hearts and mind against the tax collector Soulisphate soldier. Lance parked in front of the bar and entered the bar. Dima went straight into the bar and replaced Amara who was sitting there, The bar was relatively lovely by many lovely adventurers from all over the region. There were some other employees besides Dima, Amara, and her mother. Well, Lance took a seat in the barstool and asked for a drink from Amara. "Usual," Lance said to Amara. "Usual, huh?" Amara said as he gave Lance a big mug of beer. Dima was serving a female adventurer who was looked very frustrated. Dima served her with such charisma and confidence to the point that you can ask yourself, is it the real Dima. He asked the female adventurer, "What are you looking for?" "Well, master, could you give me something strong?" The female adventurer asked him. Dima made a cocktail the same as I did back in the day, which was a French 75. He gave it to the women after he put the same magic spell to the drink as Amara does, and she drank it and became a bit tipsy. Dima used this opportunity to asked her, "Do you have any particular problem or want to share some stuff with me?" "Well, I got a problem. Well, this about you know? Men," The tipsy customer said. "Hehe, I see, it''s about love problem then. Well, you could give him some code or something you know. Man is relentless, you know?" Dima said as he poured a shot of whiskey to a glass, "It''s on the house," he said as he gave her the whiskey. "Thanks," the female adventurer said. She put the glass on the table and said, "You know? What if I fail?" "Well, I don''t hope for that, but if that happened. I''m here to hear your chatter all night long, my lady," He said to the tipsy customer. Meanwhile, Lance and Amara were sitting on a table near the window. They were having a steak dinner on top of a steel plate. Amara said as she looked at Dima, "Dimitri is such a good bartender, he is famous both in men and women." Lance was surprised, "Wow, really?" "Yup," Amara said as she put a piece of the steak inside her cute red beautiful lips. He wiped his mouth with a napkin then drank a glass of wine on the side. She indeed still had some nobility or her. "How?" One word can ask thousand of questions. Lance drank the beer beside his steak plate. "He is famous on the female customers because he is a smooth talker and a good advisor. He is also a very caring man and a good one too. But he is also famous among male adventurers because he is a very tough drinker. At one point, he had a face to face duel with another strong male adventurer. A lot of people were betting at the male adventurers, and the battle went for a long time until he put a jerry can with blue writing on it. He won fast after he put that drink," Amara explained. "What was the writing on the jerry can? I wasn''t there on that day," Lance asked Amara. "I don''t know about the details, but it was written in English. I think the writing was Ethanol 200 Proof," Amara said as Lance was shocked as hell. Lance added his opinion after he drank the beer, "You may not know, but that is the strongest drink you can ever drink." "You came here because you want some info, right? What do you want to ask?" Amara asked him. "Well Amara, do you have any idea to multiply everyone''s income by the factor of eight," Lance asked as Amara was surprised in the same manner of Lance. Drinking her wine, "Lance, you must understand that even doubling my income is pretty hard. Not to mention the amount of rubble and casualties that you made by your army. Even the building beside me was leveled to the ground. Well, it also is easier since I don''t have that much competition nowadays," Amara said. "Ok, so what does this town are very fond of?" Lance asked Amara. "This town? Well, you live here. You must know, right?" Amara said. "Amara, You know that I always stay in my manor all day long," Lance argued. "Well, fishing, at least it was. Now, most of the earnings came from either the tourism or the agricultural sector," Amara said. "What kind of crops do this town plant? and how does this town attract tourists?" Lance asked. "Well, wheat, most of the time. Some of the tourists were adventurers looking for a job in the guild," Amara answered. "Guild? How could I''ve never heard about that before?" Lance said. "Well, you should sign yourself as an adventurer too. Many benefits you can get from there," Amara said as she grabbed the dirty plates and mug while Lance left five silver coins before he left the bar. He headed for the guild building, which was guarded by the guild mercenary. Although it was already late. The guild was still full of adventurers. The receptionist was a 20-ish white fox beastkin woman. Almost the same age as Melody, but a bit older. "Hi there, how may I help you?" She asked Lance. Lance replied, "I want to apply for the guild." "Ok, please sign up on this form, and please did some quest so we can measure your ranks for the guild. There are multiple ranks in the guild from rank S to rank F, we will measure your level by the quest you take," The receptionist explained as Lance fill the form with the ink pen that was stationed there. The quest board was full of paper and a request from the requester. The paper had the rank of the quest and the minimal people requirements for the mission. Lance was looking for a quest that had any relation with merchant escort or something that will boost the economy of the city. "Hey there, what are you looking for?" One of the male adventurers asked me. He was as tall as him, albeit a bit shorter and had brown hair and sword on his back. He was a little bit older than Dima. "Well, an escort quest to be honest. Well, found one, shit, it takes two people for the escort," Lance said as he grabbed the paper from the quest board. He grabbed the hand talkie from his hand and said, "Commands here, I will go out for a while." "Well, if you don''t mind, I can help you. The pay is good too, and we can split the gold coins," He said. In everyone''s minds, nobody would accept help from an unknown stranger that came from out of nowhere and just offering their help with payment of splitting the reward in half. The case is way even more unreasonable if you have an army that can beat down any country in one strike, but the case with Lance was far too different. He is a rational idiot, he thinks about the risk and consequences but still took the dumb option. "Ok, I agree, but where is your weapon?" The adventurer asked as his face was puzzled, looking at the unarmed Lance, which was unusual for that time. "Well, it was repaired," Lance lied to him as he brought a Glock on his hip with two magazines. Though the Glock was concealed well and nobody could see it. "The weapon shop is not far from here, how about we get there first?" He asked Lance. "Sure, but first of all, sorry to be rude but, what is your name?" Lance asked him. "My name, well, my name is Hamid Gardner, nice to meet you," Alan said as he shook Lance''s hand as Lance asked another question to him. "Well, nice to see you, Hamid, so do you know Amara?" He asked a question like a sudden freak. "Amara? Well, she was killed, right? God bless her soul," Hamid said as he took Lance to the weapon shop and took the paper from the board. The weapon shop still opened at night. As they entered the weapon shop, they got greeted by a blacksmith, a really hairy blacksmith. The hair on his hands was so thick, what a really hard-working fellow. "Hi there, Joseph, this acquaintance of mine needs some weapon," Hamid said as he hugged the blacksmith. Joseph, the blacksmith, was a weapon shop owner in this region. He sold a good quality weapon at a reasonable price. Most of the weapons there were blunt or sharp weapons, but no magic weapons since that stuff was more fitting for the nobility since the people that were taught about magic are them. A musket was still a rare weapon back there, so nobody sold it yet. "Uncle, could you give me a sword and dagger?" Lance said hesitantly. The blacksmith gave him a steel sword and a parrying dagger, the blade had already been sharpened and shining as hell. The price wasn''t low either, about 90 silver coins. "Don''t you have to worry, this person is joking. Joseph, we don''t have to fool this small child, right?" Hamid said to Joseph. "Haha, yes, only for you, I will give it for forty silver coins. Sounds good, right?" Joseph said to Hamid. "Ok, I will pay for it, and it will be cut from your payment, my little friend," Joseph said as he gave the blacksmith a pouch of coins. "Keep the change, ok," Hamid said to the blacksmith. They got out of the weapon shop and got to the place where the merchant convoy was waiting. The convoy consisted of three carriages lining up near the city gate, which was guarded by two guard dogs; two M1A2 Abrams MBTs. The merchant was well-armed for a merchant since some of them actually had a weapon on their back. The lantern was hanged on the carriage to enlighten the road. "Well, Lance, the destination is the next town. It will take only two days. Let''s work together," Hamid said as he and Lance drove the carriages with the merchant as a passenger. 21 Working As a Merc... Again "Lance, did you know about the inner struggle of the kingdom?" the merchant who was sitting on the carriage asked me. Lance nodded at his back, "Honestly sir, I don''t know much about it. I''m just a mercenary working for the money and the glory. Why do you ask?" Lance asked politely. "No, just want to share the kingdom''s inner struggle to a young man like you," The old merchant explained to him. "Sure, sir, you can go ahead," Lance said. "The Soulisphate kingdom has five major powers. The Harrison family which govern the southern region of the kingdom, the Sharrington family which govern the west region of the kingdom, the Glas and Thompson family on the east, the Barnes family on the northern region and last but not least, the king itself on the central region of the kingdom. Though the governmental structure is like that, the king still holds the highest order. The other family rank is a duke except for the Glas family, which is a count. Each of the families tried to expand their territories, hardy it ever ended in a small-scale conflict between the nobility. The recent conflict was a conflict between the Glas and the Sharrington family. The war between them was in Sharrington''s favor until suddenly, the whole Sharrington family got assassinated out of nowhere. The Glas family took over the whole east region as its own territory. The king has always been the middle-man for a small scale conflict, but the scale of this one was so big that the king''s interference was too late. The king can''t find the assassin, so the Glas family was not guilty; to be exact, there is no evidence. The power struggle has died down lately, though, but still, the next crown has not been decided yet. It could spark something, but I don''t know," The merchant rambled to him. Lance listened to him and asked him a fundamental question about his army view in the citizen, "Sir, How about the green man that suddenly appears in the Portsmouth? Who are they?" "The green man? Man, I don''t want to mess with any of them. That green man that suddenly appears out of nowhere with witchcraft that nobody could ever imagine, I mean who in the right mind can blow up the duke''s manor in one strike. That green man can conquer the Portsmouth in less than one day, hell, even the Glas family took about a month to take over the region," The merchant said. "What do you mean? They seem to be harmless," Lance tried to make a joke. The road between the town was paved, so the ride was relatively smooth. Well, smooth enough until the tax collector arrived. The tax collector of the Soulisphate kingdom, the soldier, was guarded by two knights in a horse and four mages behind him. They all were wearing the same red uniform as the one that Lance found on the fort back in the day, albeit the rank of the soldier was way lower than that admiral. "Good evening, from the Portsmouth region? Pay three gold coins in advance," The collector said. "Holy moly, that''s a robbery," Lance said. "Every merchant and traffic coming to the Portsmouth must pay tax according to the king," The tax collector said as the merchant gave them the coins. "Duh, ok," Lance said as he whipped the horse again. ''3 gold coins? No wonder why the PCI and the number of traders are way too low, the tax is absurd,'' Lance thought to himself. The merchant looked pissed off too. "That tax collector is a robber," The merchant and Hamid said as the horse got far away from the tax collector. "I see why commodities from outside the Portsmouth are fucking expensive. The tax is just absurd, without that green man, they won''t survive," Hamid said. After some hours of riding, they finally arrived at the Hopeville. Calling it a town was an overstatement. It was a rural village, in fact. Sure, there was a market and things like a tavern, but it was a rural village with a lack of guard. "Lance, thanks for the help, eh, oh, here is the reward, split it with Hamid ok. He is a good guy," The merchant said as he gave Lance two gold coins. "Ok, good luck, old-timer," Lance said as he got out of that carriage and approached Hamid. Hamid leaned his back at someone else house wall while smoking. Lance have him all of the gold coins and asked for his payment. Hamid gave him his payment, which was some silver coin, "All of my debts settled then, I will take a journey to the capital. Care to join?" He asked as he walked to a horse rental. "Nah, see you, Hamid," Lance said as Hamid whipped his horse. The waved each other hands as Lance grabbed his HT and called for air extraction. "Requesting airlift on sector Hotel Romeo One," Lance said to his handie talkie. As soon as he called that, an MH-60M Blackhawk helicopter flew around the Hopeville. However, that was the general''s personal helicopter, so the one aboard should be either Melody, Natalya, Lochlan, or Dima. Well, the one aboard was the most Russian face that you could see there; Dima. Lance shot his Flare gun, and the helicopter landed near him. The passenger opened the door for him, "Where is your uniform soldier?" Dima said as he handed down Lance''s personal uniform, an M81 Woodland uniform. "Thanks, but where should I change?" Lance asked him. "Well, the public bathroom seems to be a good choice," Dima said as the helicopter blades stopped spinning, and he threw a towel and a bar of soap. Lance ran to the public bathroom and took a quick breeze of shower. He returned barefooted with the shoes on his hands. Dima gave him his combat boots and socks. He cleaned his foot with the dirty clothes and wore the boots. "Dima, where are we going to do today?" Lance asked Dima while wearing his straps and his helicopter helmet "We going to hunt for the best shaslik meat. Otherwise known as the biggest ox that you can find. I took the quest from the guild," Dima said to him as the helicopter blades started to spin again, and the helicopter lifted off from the ground. Lance sat on the door of the helicopter while holding an M240B at his hands. The helicopter lifted off from the ground as they spoke, and Lance was wondering, ''What kind of hunting quest is this?'' A hunting quest that requires an MH-60 should be weird. "Dima, how many coins we got from this?" Lance asked Dima, who was sitting on the M134 minigun turret. "How much? Six gold coins and the meat itself. Comrade, we are going to have a shaslik party at Portsmouth," Dima said wildly. "Six gold coins? How many we have to hunt?" Lance asked. "50 of them comrade, meat supply for the whole year," Dima replied. "No shit? Did you bring any backup?" Lance asked him as he waved his feet on the helicopter. He put the M240B on his thigh while the helicopter was being followed from the back. "Backup? Are that Chinook and the 6x6 transport truck counts?" Dima said as he pointed his hands at the heavy-lift chopper and the two 6x6 heavy trucks on the road. "Well, then Dima," A group of oxen was surrounding the grassland while eating the grass peacefully, "Happy hunting," Lance choked the handle of the M240B and started to blast the ox right in the head. "General, it won''t be fun without some music, right?" The pilot suddenly said as the speaker of the helicopter started to play "Long tall sally" on the background. "Oh yeah," Lance said as the 7.62 NATO rained down to the oxen. The view from Lance''s point of view was a view of a soldier having fun by slaughtering the annoying oxen from the helicopter with a truly staggering amount of FREEDOM. The soldiers got out of the 6x6 truck and started to stab the ox in the neck with their combat knife and started to butcher them. From the perspective of the Hopeville village, though, it was different. A bunch of barbaric green men playing loud music god knows how loud it is, slaughtering the pest called ox on their backdoor. The green man''s hand was full of blood from the ox. "Ten ox down, forty more to go," Dima said as he pushed the trigger of the M134 minigun, and 7.62 rounds of freedom rained down from the MH-60 helicopter. The dead remnants of the ox were skinned and put to the truck. The skin is going to be sold in the Portsmouth. The meat is going to be cooked at the public kitchen, "All of the oxen have been killed," Lance said to Dima, who was having too much fun wasting all of the ammunition inside the helicopter. "Roger that Comrade, hey pilot. RTB, the privates sometimes don''t know how to cook," Dima said as the helicopter turned away from the Hopeville and entered the Portsmouth airspace. 22 Working As a Merc... Again MKII "Yup, another quest," Dima said as he grabbed a flask containing his Vodka. Lance and his group grabbed the hidden quest. The hidden quest in this context was the equivalent of clandestine op in the modern term. Most of the time, the request was being made by the five major power. However, the reason why the generals did that quest because they want to have some fun. "Well, Lance, what kind of contract is it now?" Melody asked him. "Certainly a contract that our babushka can handle," Dima said right in front of Natalya''s face. Without haste, Natalya put a punch on Dima''s belly. "Killing another tax collector as usual," Lance said. Lochlan had already complained to him about the development of the town. About why they don''t develop the agricultural and tourism of the region. However, Lance responded that the tax collector was the real problem since there was no point in selling if no one will buy it. The citizen of Portsmouth will buy it, but outside of the city? The tax collector collects about 50% of the worth of things that are being carried. Anyone that does their trading in Portsmouth will certainly go bankrupt. Dima? He suggested another attack, but Lance refused. His reason? We don''t want more civilian casualties. "Yeah, the first time we hunt down a tax collector, we brought the A-10. Damn, all that''s left from him was a pile of mincemeat," Lochlan said. He remembered the A-10 fired the AGM-65 to the convoy of the tax collector from distance and the A-10 finished the mission with some brrrrrrt on the end. "In fact, we knew that one sniper will do the job nicely," Natalya said while holding her Gepard M6 Lynx with the Russian 12.7mm ammo. The group sat down on the chair on the guild and put their rifles and pistol on the table. Lance brought an HK416, Lochlan brought a GM-94, Dima brought an M240B, Natalie used a Gepard M6, and Melody used an FN MK 20 SSR. The sidearm was the same which was a Glock 20 chambered in 10mm auto. They wore a CADPAT, Lace wore a green shemagh that was put down on his neck. the guild receptionist approached them while serving them with a free warm tea. ''system, open quest please'' [Showing available quests for user] Main Quest: [Developing] Region that the user has captured needs to be managed. The user has to manage the region and made it into a thriving region. User also must keep an eye out on the rebellion and attack from the Soulisphate kingdom. Objective: Trade/day: 3000/10000. Per Capita Income: 150 silver coins per person/ 4 gold coins per person. Ship anchored per day: 2/50. Visitor per day 120/200. Side Quest: [Ammo production] Find all of the three mines and oil spot on the Portsmouth Objective: Mines found: 0/3. Oil spot found: 0/3 Reward: Self-sustainable military and defense forces. [Closing] "Nice, now we have more trade in the city since the tax collector had been reduced significantly," Lance said as he closed his quest board and looked at the real physical paper quest on the table. "Who is the contractor this time?" Lance asked the guild receptionist. "It''s a secret, we only gave the quest itself to a famous adventurer or at a town lord." The female receptionist said. "Who is the guild master anyway? We have been here for about a month and we have not met him yet," Melody said to the guild receptionist. "Guild master name only can be known by an adventurer of rank A and above, as that person over there," The receptionist said as she pointed his hand to a bulky female knight that was sitting with her party. "Should I deal with her Comrade?" Dima said as he put his trigger happy finger at the trigger of the M240B. "No, Don''t. Maybe not now," Lance said as he put Dima''s M240 down. "Ok, then let''s leave then before this urod turn the whole building into a pizdec," Natalya said as he dragged Dima right on his clothes and the other stood up from the table and grabbed their weaponry. In front of the guild building, there were five horses that were theirs. Like any operatives during the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, a horse was better for them since they were covert and don''t want to be seen. Although truth to be told, they were very obvious at it since their uniform was far different from the Soulishphate army which was pretty shiny and reddish. Lance got into his horse which had a Carl Gustav M4 on the saddle loaded with a HE rounds, the others did the same too and they got out of the Portsmouth and went hunting for any tax collector. Any tax collector would do since there were not any requests for any specific tax collector. Not long afterward, the tax collector could be seen in the grassland with his squad of bodyguards. 2 of them were a knight on a horse, 5 of them were a regular infantry holding a sword, 3 of them were a mage, and lastly, the tax collector himself. Natalie and Melody got out of the horse first since they were a marksman and distance was their advantage. Especially Natalie since her rifle was about as powerful as .50 BMG sniper rifle. Lance and the men would do a hit and run to the tax collector group using their horse. Lance: "Assasin 4, do you have a visual on the mage?" Natalie: "Assasin 4 here, visual on the target, ready to take the shot." Lance: "Do it." A loud sound and two birds fell by one stone. Two of them dropped on the ground and the convoy was shocked badly. The knight''s horse scrambled and the soldier readied their sword. Just before the last mage fired his spell, The barrage of bullets was fired by the squad of Lance''s. The 7.62x51mm from Melody''s FN MK-20 fired a precise bullet to each of the target''s head. The head popped off one by one like a cherry. The knights were also popped off from the horse and leaving a messy mess. Dima: "Assasin 2, all target down." Melody: "Assasin 5 copy. Stand by." Lance got out of the horse and looted the tax collector. Well, as usual, there was no loot since the hunts down for the tax collector really affect their income since there wasn''t any successful tax collection on the Portsmouth region. However, there was a sealed letter sealed with a red candle seal on it. He opened the letter and saw the content. He was shocked and the others were confused so they got out of the horse too and followed Lance to get out of the horse. The letter content was what you can expect from a sealed order to a soldier. Melody: "This is Assasin 5, what took you so long. Hurry and get out of there." Lance: "This is Assasin 1, to all members of Assasin fireteam. R.V here." Melody and Natalya got on their horses and went for Lance''s location. They read that letter too as soon as they got there and they were surprised too. To the General of the western fort There are unknown forces that are suspected to be the demon''s army. Portsmouth has fallen to the demon''s hand. I request the western region to do an attack to capture back the Portsmouth. If the demon has gained an advantage, scorched earth operation is permitted. General, success in this operation is a must. Honor \u0026 Glory To Soulisphate "Yup, the king is a plum fool," Lance said as he trashed the letter. 23 Kingdoms Counterattack After the letter accident, the general staff had a meeting in the manner of Portsmouth. Rear Admiral Harold Andersen; the commander of the USS Gerald R Ford CSG, Rear Admiral Elizabeth Baker; The commander of USS Harry S Truman CSG, Rear Admiral Christopher Marquez; the commander of USS Ronald Reagan; Lieutenant General Kochler Konman; The commander of Gracebel Island AFB, Lieutenant General Andrei Balandin; the commander of Portsmouth AFB, Major General Kiril Alexeyev; the commander of Portsmouth Army base and the other high ranking officer were having a meeting on the manor. They saw the sealed letter on the projector and plot a plan for a counter-attack. The kingdom''s army of the western region had about 300.000 personnel, twelve main forts surrounding the Portsmouth, about 100 knights, and mage wyverns, 25 dragons, thousands of cannon and musket, 5 division of mages, a division of knight, 4 division of regular grunts and a division of officers. Battleship is not in the calculation, but an estimated naval power of 2000 battleship can be expected, so about 895.000 naval personnel in total. "So, ladies and gentlemen, that''s all I can say about this kingdom capability on offensive and defensive," Lance finished his explanation as the other officers listened. "Hmm, a pre-emptive attack on the kingdom sounds very good," Admiral Marquez said. "A diplomatic solution sounds more appealing. I think to send our delegation to the kingdom and have an agreement with the king himself. We have a bargaining chip which is General Sharrington," General Schumann said. Admiral Andersen drew a plan, a very crude one on a whiteboard, "This is my plan of counter-attack," he said as he presented his plan which only consisted of three words, "Shock And Awe". "We can surround the whole territorial water of the Soulisphate kingdom and obliterate any ship that came close to 400 nm of our strike group. "That''s why we are friend Admiral," Admiral Marquez said to him. "Thanks, admiral," Admiral Andersen replied. "Ok, the navy plan is set, so how about the airforce?" Lance asked General Balandin and General Konman. "Easy, AGM-158 cruise missile, a guarantee in destruction," General Balandin said. The plan was just to attack the capital with a cruise missile right on the kingdom which was a bad idea for a diplomatic result. "So the plan is to surround the whole kingdom using the Carrier-Strike-Group and sent them some cruise missile. Is that right Admiral?" Lochlan asked Admiral Marquez. "So who is the one that going to deliver the cruise missile?" General Balandin asked. "A squadron of F-15E escorted with a squadron of F-22. Easy right?" General Konman said. "I suggest a bomber like a B-1 to bomb the entire city," Lance said. "So the plan is that we are going to attack directly to the capital?" Melody asked. "Ok, for the army, what are you going to bring?" Lance asked Andrei. "Two battalion of M1126 APC for carrying troops, A company of M1128 IFV and A company of M1A2 Abrams. Overall, a regiment should be enough," General Balandin answered. "Even if our ammo was not enough, we can whack them in our tank and APC," he continued. An armored vehicle battalion consists of 58 armored vehicles and a company of tanks consisted of 14 tanks. So overall, they were equipped with at least more than a hundred armored vehicles and fourteen tanks. Each tank carried about 42 rounds of mixed ammunition, and not to mention the number of rounds that the Stryker carried. "The plan is as this, the CSG will surround the water territory of the kingdom and acts as a naval blockade. The Air force will bomb the western capital out of existence and the army will occupy the town. For note, we will only occupy the western region only. We don''t want to make the enemy of the entire world. Ladies and Gentlemen, plans are set in motion right on tomorrow at 0300. Dismissed," Lance said and the other general left the meeting room and returned to their base. Dima and the others still remained in the meeting room. Albeit the situation was far more relaxed. Dima put his feet on the table, Lochlan continued his investigation on Sharrington''s assassination and the women had gone out for the Portsmouth AFB. They will join the AWACS flight for intel gathering; they''re the escort in the F-15C. "Lochlan, what did you get from our beloved death count?" Lance asked Lochlan who was reading the manor''s secretary journal and note. Apparently, every event that happened there was written by their beloved secretary that had become Lochlan''s private secretary. Why? She was an intel gatherer/ scout in the secret section of the Soulisphate kingdom before becoming the count''s secretary, after some brainwashing and other procedure, she became a secretary with the rank as same as what she used to have back in Soulisphate kingdom; Major. "Hmm, Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Lochlan asked as he put away his book of intel and journal. "The good news first," Lance said as Lochlan slid him a file on the table. "Well, I found the main lead and the top-of-the-food-chain person here," Lance grabbed the file with the mark "TOP SECRET" on it. The file was very black and had a red stamp that had the mark "CLASSIFIED". "The bad news, well, you can see for yourself." Lance opened the file and looked at the picture of an old man in a black robe and sat behind the king of the Soulisphate kingdom. The person that every nobility recognized and knew well since he was the one that can tip the balance in a nobility war, "Yup, if you stab the heart, you will accidentally stab the lungs too. The prime minister is the one that ordered the assassination," Lochlan said as he showed him the evidence. "Wow, that was unexpected, well, intel gathering with a CIA size unit is a good thing after all. How many troops did you send to the main capital?" Lance asked. "Hmm, If I recall well, about a platoon of US Army Delta and Russian SVR RF Zaslon. Well, both of them do their job well. Do you want me to assassinate the prime minister?" Lochlan asked Lance while grabbing his cellphone from his pocket. "Not now, the kingdom will go into a state of civil war if we do that, maybe later," Lance replied to him. "Ok, then, Will Dima go to work today?" He asked as he saw Dima who was sleeping on the chair. "He took a day off, good night General," Lance said and he left the meeting room. "Good night, Lance," Lochlan said as he turned on his table light and turned off the room lights. 24 Pre-emptive attack begin. A bomber squadron consisted of 12 B-1 Lancer bombers were flying to the capital. Four of them were carrying 84 MK 82 bombs, 4 of them were carrying 30 CBU-87 cluster bomb, which carried 200 bomblets per bomb, and 4 of them were retrofitted and carrying 25 GBU-28 heavy bunker-buster bombs. A division of mechanized infantry was dispatched to the capital city. The mechanized infantry consisted of the "Stryker" and M1A2 "Abrams." The tracks and wheel were rolling in the dark grassland while being accompanied by several walking soldiers beside it. The CSG had surrounded every corner and border of the Soulisphate kingdom. Every CSG had the same configuration as the Gerald R Ford''s. The USS Harry S Truman surrounded the southern region of the Soulisphate, The USS Ronald Reagan surrounded the eastern region of the Soulisphate, and USS Gerald R Ford went for the Northern region since its home port had been already protected by the Portsmouth AFB. As far as the report goes, they have sunk 14 ships across the whole ocean with their Tomahawk missiles. Lance and Dima were standing in front of the runway besides their F-22A. They gazed up to the sky seeing the fighter and the bomber that was flying on top of their head. Once the bomber and the fighter jets passed by, come the silence from the wind blowing on the grass near the runway. Lance held his flight helmet on his right hand, "Somehow, the sound of the grass makes me calm." The blips of lights from the runway just add more to the quietness of the night. So soothing yet so chaotic if you think about the armaments that were sent from that base. "So do I," Dima said as the wind blew, and he entered his fighter jet and turned on the engines. Lance: "Hugo flight requesting take off." ATC: "General, you''re clear to take off in runway 3." Lance: "Copy that." The blast from the Pratt\u0026Whitney F119 engines hit the runway. The plane gained velocity and speed. Lance: "V1, Rotate." The jets took off from the ground and changed their frequencies to the AWACS frequencies. AWACS: "This is AWACS Skyeye. Nice to be flying with you, General." Lance: "Skyeye, how many aerial targets are there in the A.O." AWACS: "About 25 wyvern and two dragons. The target will be marked on the HUD as TGT." Lance: "Copy that, Skyeye. Hugo 2, we got a dragon to hunt." The mage and the soldier got bombarded from the bomber. A bunch of explosives could be seen on the ground. MK 82 bomb had about 500 kg of explosives. "Wow, what fireworks," The jet flew past the bomber. The jets continued its flight towards the flying target. A Soulisphate Soldier POV Honestly, I''m glad that we finally have some action to do around this peaceful eastern region. The general told us to attack the green man on the Portsmouth Harbor and recapture the town. This is going to be a quick and smooth attack. Soulisphate was the kingdom that beats the demon lord after all. I''m going to join the scout unit. The unit consisted of the greatest swordsman and mages of the entire kingdom. My squad consisted of an elf marksman, a dwarf knight, a bear beastkin as a swordsman, and me, myself, a human. Our mission is to infiltrate the Portsmouth and gathered some information and do some sabotage on the side. We dressed in civilian clothing and dressed like an adventurer to the town. We were amazed by the security of the town, a carriage that as hard as metal, and a lot of green guys holding some kind of metal rods. We stumbled across an abandoned post of the soldier. They had a small metal box that emits pictures like a rainbow because nobody was there, we decided to break it with our knives, then suddenly. "Cyka Blyat, what have you done to my TV?" One of the green men said. The elf stabbed him in the chest but got surprised by the hidden metal thingy under his chest. Not stopping there, but he also wore a black helmet similar to a sketch I saw the other days and had a tubular rod on his hands. "INTRUDER!!!!" He screamed and a bunch of other green men surrounding us while aiming their metal rods at us. The dwarf knight decided to charge at the green man, but a thunder that was summoned from the metal rods put him down. "Open fire!" The man that held the tubular rod spun and blasted the wrath of God. The metal road spat fire and metal and killed everyone except for me because I was hiding behind a crate. The soldier walked beside me, but when I looked left, I got stabbed from behind. "Fucking hell, now our TV is gone," one of the Russian soldiers cursed while looking at their broken television. "At least we got the intruder Capitan," She said. "Yeah, right," he said as he put his M134 minigun at a nearby desk. END OF POV AWACS: "Sending target coordinates and predicted field of movement." Dima: "Hugo 2 copy." Lance: "Hugo 1 copy." The jets were supercruising so they can reach supersonic speed without the need for afterburner. However, the jets hadn''t noticed anything yet. "No joy, bogey dope," Lance said. "Bearing 3-5-7, 300 km from AWACS, altitude 2000 meter, could be a bandit," Skyeye said. "Copy, I got it on the radar, it''s a scrub though," Lance said as he looked at the slow-moving airborne target. "It could be a bandit, sending the target to the IFF," Skyeye said as a rectangular shape thingy appeared on the radar. Dima peeked at his left side and saw four cruises flying in his left side, "Greyhound spotted, I wonder where are their destination," They overtook the tomahawk missiles. The radar blips finally entered the effective range of the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile, "Hugo 1, Fox 3," a missile was fired from the aircraft. "Hugo 2, Fox 3," Dima said as he fired an AMRAAM missile to the wyvern. "Hugo 1, Second Fox 3," another AMRAAM missile shot to the target. The 25 blips on their radar were reduced to 22 blips. Soon they finally within the visual range of the target, a flying wyvern with a person on top of it and within the range of their sidewinder. "Fox 2," A sidewinder fired and hit the wyvern right on the wing. The dragon fell down, and they suddenly intercepted a low-frequency communication in the radar, "What kind of spell is that? as if god wraith rained upon us?" Lance: "Fox 2," A missile was fired and hit another wyvern in the process and killing its pilot. Dima''s jet flew right over the rider''s head, "That''s a Satan craft, that''s a tool of the Satan. That scream is Satan scream," The unknown shouted as the wyvern tried to retreat. The scream that he/she meant was the roar from the Pratt\u0026Whitney F119 Engines. Dima: "Finish them." A burst from 20mm M61 Vulcan rotary cannon was shot and killed eight wyverns in the process. "Retreat, we can''t fight Satan by ourselves." Dima: "Fox 3, Fox 3," Dima fired all of his AMRAAM, and in a lucky shot, he was able to shot 10 of the wyvern. There were only three wyverns remeaning. "Not on my watch, Fox 3, Fox 3." Lance shot three of his AMRAAM missiles and left only one missile remeaning on the F-22. "All target destroyed, good job, RTB. Leave the rest for the other," AWACS said. "RTB, now," The F-22 made a vertical bank and returned to the Portsmouth AFB. 25 Still Pre-Emptive attack Meanwhile, the infantry still pushing their position against a heavy armored knight which made small arms no longer had the advantage. However, they brought heavy artillery this time. The 3rd Tank company with Captain Mikhail as its commander. They were doing their last charge across the burned grassland from the hostile bombing run. The grassland was full of blood pool and the rest of the walking infantry was in their respective armored vehicles. So everyone was protected. In the heat of the battle between the mages, knight, rifleman, and tanks, Captain Mikhail in his tank said, "Bombardier 1, this is Joker 1, CAS destroys the knight column and open the way for the 3rd tank platoon." "Copy that joker, air support inbound," Bombardier 1 in the A-10 said. Not more than a minute later, a first brrrt sound produced a giant firecracker in the vicinity. Then the second brrrt followed those firecrackers and killed every knight in the vicinity. The tank platoon whacked the remnants of their horses and their bodies. "Target down," The A-10 flew passed the tank battalion. "Last push, the city wall is up ahead," Mikhail said as the Gunner shot the 125mm HE rounds to the 20 pounder magic cannon. The cannon shattered in big pieces and killing everyone that was near it. The whole 12 tanks that were sent by General Andrei massacred the remnants of the army that were bombed to the Oblivion. Their big number can''t match the firepower of modern weaponry. The army was pushed to the defensive position which was the town of Westfall which was the last line of defense in the kingdom. The town was surrounded by three inner walls with several partitions on each wall. The wall goes as high as 20 meters and every wall has cannon and mages stationed there. However, Mikhail''s eyes were focused on one weird thing, a little girl on top of the wall and were followed by other mages wearing a witch hat. "What an urod. Sending a mere child on a battlefield, but those who have the RPG has the right to be shot on sight," He commented as he shot the witch with the remote turret on top of the M1A2 Abrams. "Capitan, The witches are down and we are pushing forward," Another tank commander said to him. "Gunner load the cannon with HE Squash head. Destroy that gate!!" Mikhail said as the loader loaded another round to the cannon and the gunner fired it at the city gate. "Sure Captain," The major said as the soldiers were disembarking from their APC and they moved to clean the buildings from hostile. Captain Mikhail stuck his head from out of his tank hatch. He held his HK416 on his hands. The city was full of smoke and in full chaos. The bodies of the dead soldiers were falling down from the city walls. The infantries kicked some int or someone''s else house searching for any mage since they were the one that was capable of damaging the tanks. "GET DOWN!! GET ON THE GROUND NOW!!" the soldier shouted as he kicked the door of a house. The wife screamed as his husband was put down by a barrage of the bullet. However, it was an act of self-defense. "CLEAR," the soldier shouted as he waved his hands at the window. The tank company moved deeper into the city and fired some rounds at some building. The buildings crumble into pieces as the tank rounds hit it. "Captain, sent the 1st tank platoon to the inner wall," The major told him. "Roger that Major, To the first tank platoon, break through the third inner wall and standby for further order," Mikhail said. The tanks charged to the wall and broke through the soldier barricade. Suddenly, a male mage with a big black robe appeared and summon a huge fireball. So huge that it was almost as big as the city wall itself which was twenty meters tall. Like a thermobaric projectile, the explosions made an explosive that was relatively safe for an armored vehicle, but very disastrous for the infantry since they were the ones that getting the third-degree burns from the fireball. The buildings around them were crumbling from the blast overpressure. As fast as they could, the tanks fired their cannon at the mage thus killing him and his escort in the process. Although of the number of casualties, they kept pushing into the town and they finally arrived at the town hall. There was a statue of the king in the plaza and the soldiers decided to bring it down in the same manner as Saddam Hussein statue and just like Saddam''s statue, the civilian watched the procedure with a bunch of shout and clap. As the Abrams pulled the statue and brought it down with a chain, the crowd went mad and started to step their feet on the statue and threw a bunch of stuff at the statue itself. Meanwhile, Mikhail and his tank crews were sitting while watching the toppling of the statue, one of his subordinates asked, "Sir, is this mean that our journey is over?" "Well Son," He paused. "Looks like it just started," He paused again. "We still have a long way to go. May God bless us," he said as he got inside the tank again. The town was burned by the Soulisphate kingdom, but the soldiers felt pride and honor to liberate the town from the oppression of the kingdom. 26 The King Has Guts Apparantely Lochlan had applied a policy of forced labor, mostly applied to the POWs and the prisoner that was kept on the prison. However, the treatment that had already violate the UN law of POW was far more lawful than the treatment that the kingdom gave. As a result, the GDP gone up by a huge margin. Lance was looking at his small kingdom from the big manor''s window, the airbase was full of traffic from the cargo planes that were sending the supplies across the whole airfield in the western region. Sharrington Family owned the western region although with some disagreement from the kingdom, but Lance didn''t give a fuck until... "Sir!" Lochlan the intel gatherer and manager stormed the door without any manner. "MIND TO KNOCK FIRST WILL YA? WHAT IS IT?" Lance shouted from the window. "I beg your pardon sir, but please look at this," he said after he saluted as an apology and he gave Lance a picture of a convoy of carriages accompanied by knights escort, elf marksman, and some mages. "Hmm, that''s a typical royal convoy," Lance asked him. "Sir, Intercept and destroy?" Lochlan asked. "Negative, Look closely, maybe the intel will say that its a bad idea," Lance said as he pointed at the white carriage in the middle while pointing at a certain insignia. "Hmm, that''s a high royalty emblem. Could be a prince, king, or the prime minister himself," Lochlan said. "We take the chance, get the Blackhawk, let''s meet them. If it is the prime minister, shoot on sight. I don''t want any question from anyone questioning that order and we will occupy the whole country by force afterward. If it''s the king, let''s just make a ceasefire treaty with him, but I doubt that after I did something to his daughter," Lance said as an AH-64 "Apache" landed on a helipad on the manor. Lochlan called them as fast as he can. "Ok and call Dimitri," Lance said as he left his office with his cap on his head. The courtyard had been modified so a helicopter can land there. Well, as usual, the pilot was no other than the friendliest face that you can see in the region; Dima. "Hey, hey, this baby is armed and loaded, care to join?" Dima said as Lance wore his flight suit and the other apparatus. "Sure, sure," Lance climbed to the helicopter and it took off. During the trip, Dima said, "Hey, do you know that someone washed Admiral Andersen Coffee mug?" "No shit, what happened to him?" Lance replied. "Poor guy, he has to wash the whole flight deck by himself," Dima replied. "Haha, such a poor guy," Lance answered as he steered the helicopter towards the royal convoy. Lochlan said that General Andrei had come as a delegation. However, the welcoming party came in the form of a roadblock of tanks and APC. The knights that the soldier intentionally let go to spread the fear of the army. The result was a power superiority in both physicological and physical warfare, no knights that want to attack the green man on sight. Instead, the knights made an excuse with their passenger to turn around and return which was hilarious. Lance landed the Apache and he got out of it and Dima flew the helicopter again as their support in case the royalty tried to do something stupid. Lance left his flight helmet and only brought his HK416C, he walked to General Andrei. As it turns out, the passenger was very pissed off and he went out of the carriage and it was the king himself. Lance stood upon Andrei''s right side, "General, who is that passenger that uses a very conspicuous and hilarious outfit in our standard?" he asked. "General Andrei, he is the king, what does he want?" Lance said to express his confused, usually, his adjutant will come first and inform them about the king''s arrival, but this time the king came to them by himself. He came to them, but the soldier didn''t show any malicious intent to respect him although some can saw their trigger finger was ready on the .50 BMG turret. The king approached them and said, "Move! do you know who I am?" "Why does everyone asked me that damn question every time?" Lance took off his helmet, "Your majesty, it''s been an honor to meet you," Lance said as he took off the sunglasses. "Wait, Lawrence, you''re still alive? How? I thought Count Glas killed you. So good to see you, I thought I will never see you again," He answered with a surprised face. "It''s my honor, your majesty," Lance said, but Andrei became more confuse since he didn''t know the situation there, "General, I thought you are the highest chain of command." "I''m just an invader in his view, though I appreciate his guts coming all the way here. So, your majesty, how can I help you?" Lance asked politely. "I''ve never thought that I will see you again in my entire life. So, what will you do now? Will you join us back as a part of the Soulisphate kingdom?" The king offered him an agreement which was very one-sided. "Hmm, I will leave that for Amara. Though, I, myself, highly doubt that anyone in the west region wants to join the Soulisphate again. You noticed the sudden drop in traffic at the other harbors right?" Lance counter his offer. "I will consider renewing the nobility title for both of you and Gardner''s family. Also, Soulisphate won''t longer harass the ship that is coming to the Portsmouth. Lance, I know that your family was strong, but we must follow the good old procedure that our ancestor passed so we can''t risk giving you and Amara too much power," The king offered the agreement. "Harassing the ship? King, you are clueless aren''t you?" Lance said. He gave the king a one-sided agreement, "Your majesty, Hmm, I think it would be inappropriate to call you that right now. King John, I will call you John. I request you to pull all naval activities from around the Portsmouth and give independence to that region. Take this as a threat, if you choose to disobey, we will do things a thousand times worse than what we did at Westfall," He continued as a person that was the secretary of the king wrote down something on a paper. "That''s outrageous, Soulisphate will never surrender to anyone!" The king shouted. "Sure, you can bitch about it, but what will you do? Attack us? We will attack you back harder than ever been. Your majesty, honestly, you are playing a game of chess with an opponent that has replaced every single one of his chess pieces into a queen. So what? What''s your call?" Lance threatened him. "KNIGHT!!! ATTACK!!!" The king shouted, but the knights just stood there watching in fear as the Bushmaster 30mm autocannon was pointed at their direction with a loud hydraulic noise. Lance laughed to mock the king. However, things went south as a musket ball landed on Andrei''s unprotected groin. Yup, he forgot to wear his groin protector. "My balls," Andrei dropped on the ground as the bushmaster heavy cannon was shot to the carriage and the AH-64 that Dima rode started to shot it''s AGM-114 Hellfire missile and made a huge explosion that killed the whole convoy except the king himself. Lance grabbed the king''s by the neck as Andrei was carried to the medic''s vehicle, he put his pistol at the king''s head, "You can call me a fool, you can call me an idiot, but don''t ever mess with my brother in arms. This is your last chance, either agree with my terms or face the consequence," He walked away from the king and the infantry in the APC handled him. "How did it went?" Dima asked him. "Not too great, not too terrible. Let''s rebuilt Portsmouth to its former glory, Dima," Lance said using his radio. "Sure"