And They Will Tell… This Was How It Started

  “We will now speak of the situation. The senator seemed to have a lot to say, but there was no danger to any person, perhaps a hot-headed action. Let us proceed with the intended purpose for this assembly.” Luis stood up after giving the glare to Fox. He looked at the other with his fingers on the desk before him before sitting back down. Silence reigned over the room, with the NSH wearing confused faces.

  After a bit, all cameras focused on Luis, who nodded to his sides before speaking to the cameras. “Thank you for letting such a government report take place on such short notice, and to all present for remaining civil in this assembly.”

  “In this government report, I will first speak of the matters I believe are of utmost importance to the country. Then, we will follow with my cabinet’s overall situation on the country. I have to say, foremost, that with the results of this year, the next term should be able to elevate the minimum salary to above 200 credits in the first 100 days, at the very least. At last, Lymoca will return to the necessary stability that we lost decades ago.”

  “Well then, first, let me speak to the people of the congress. For initiating talks of the last initiative in my second term, first consecutive, I am glad to see them being discussed seriously since 2 days ago. I believe something like this was necessary, and delaying it was simply counterproductive.”

  “Thus, I’d like to thank the senators and deputies who sent this initiative of reforms to the serious discussions you are now having, which I believe will see their result in the following weeks. I just wish it could be sooner.” Luis paused, looking down at a document before freeing his desk area.

  Looking up at the camera, he became a little serious and intertwined his hands resting on the desk. “I know that, throughout the situation with this sudden war that took everyone by surprise, life became complicated. I hope this will be soon be seen by the majority of the congress. That they are no longer bent on just opposing the side of the people. There is a need to remember we share the same homeland, and these adversities won’t stop us. Definitely not just a ‘people’.”

  “To further notion this, I am satisfied and joyous to announce the definitive stop to all criminal organization activity in Lymoca. From the country with the most infamously renown OC groups, we’ve become one without such. Furthermore, programs to expose the vulnerability of the youngsters in the organized crime will soon come out to light. With information of the fallen throughout all these years.”

  “Those who had family, from their ancestry to the contemporary, you might be able to find the information of your beloved ones. Some weren’t recorded, as the OCs only began this strange protocol several decades ago, not even 100 years ago. Those would be 13% of the criminals in those groups whose characteristics are the only information known about them.”

  “We were unable to recover more information, with no previous pictures, and only used aliases.” Luis paused for a moment, looking down at his empty desk before back up at the cameras, the people. “This brings forth a notorious celebration. The tumor in Lymoca’s lands and heart has been removed. There is no law forbidding the joy of a nation!”

  “Unless the judicial branch is willing to arrest us in the millions, with their few thousands of secretly hired private guards, there’s nobody to stop the Lys from their Lye movement!” Luis raised his left fist and exerted strength in his voice and expression.

  Clap, clap, clap… Less than half the people in the congress clapped, most from NF and other small political parties, with the neutrals doing so after them. Then, the opposition clapped with half-willingness.

  Luis was standing up for the customs the Lys half-forgot, with the SCJ’s sudden regulations, prohibiting such customs, celebrations, and only allowing the national hymn to sound in schools for children. Since the president himself would celebrate in the country’s name, how could the rest of the Lys do nothing after depreciating him so much?

  “The reparations for the damages in the rural and natural zones around the country have already started. The largest source of damage came from the sabotaged explosions of clandestine laboratories the OCs burnt before fleeing or being arrested. Such are quickly being attended by the respective experts and military. The national guard is also providing assistance…”

  Luis spoke for a while, spending 3 minutes to explain the situation after dealing with the organized crime before slowly halting. He took a few seconds to breathe without taking water, concluding, “These are the news for the most recent events with the county’s priority. I will now let the cabinet elaborate further. I only wish to speak a few words about this war.”

  Luis stood up and looked at the camera with his chest slightly heaving up and down. The NF and some small political parties did the same, but the others remind seated. Luis began, “Lymoca isn’t going to fight the Ters. We won’t search for conquest, but detain the government who we suspect has ulterior motives regarding the sphere of influence of others.”

  Luis continued sounding ambiguous, “A fault between countries, and of the same continent, almost neighbors, sharing waters not more than a couple thousand kilometers away never happened before. Should this end well for both sides— like we once did in the past, we will support Terka’s people and their true reconstruction without the hand of those who ‘want to’, but of their Terkan people.”

  “That is all, thank you for listening to this introduction. To keep going, I’d like further and more solid details of the situation from beginning to end of the cleansing operation from the Chief Secretary of Security…” Luis gave the limelight to Fox, who stepped forth to elaborate once…

  ***

  A few days later, 7 days in total after the Lymocan forces marched unto Terka. 1,026th year, 3rd month, 3rd week, 7th day. Terka, nighttime.

  The Lymocan navy arrived in their positions just around 25 minutes from a direct and accurate range for their artillery guns and missile launching systems. They anchored in the middle of the sea, with a few Lymocan light support helicopters usually seen from the distance by boats and unmanned aircraft near Terkan beaches.

  Terka’s coast wasn’t small, but they didn’t have a navy so to speak, just like Torka, who is much smaller and without any coast. All the Terkan navy consisted was of quick boats with small, unmanned helicopters for scouting. They usually used these to detect organized crime’s movements, although they were frequently always scared and then taken by surprise whenever some OCs sought benefits or simply for a show of power.

  The Lymocan army neared the northeastern border of Terka with Cors, a little over a few hundred kilometers from Carnge. During these days, the army had been traveling with unstoppable speed, although there was a stop midway after entering Carnge to ensure the maintenance of everything.

  When they were approaching Terka after leaving the nearest city near the main roads, the Lys were alerted that the Terkan military mined their border by Cors’s government. This was strange, mostly because Terka didn’t notify Cors. They also didn’t close the border. All they did was fill it with mines.

  Left with no other choice, as the Lymocan marching line approached Terka, they planned out the layout for their wait. After all, they couldn’t stay in Cors like it could become their first HQ in the war. That wasn’t part of their agreement.

  Thus, once they neared the Terkan border, the army sent a large convoy to deal with the minefield. The moment they closed in, enough for their devices to detect those mines to the edge of the Terkan border, the Lymocan soldiers became aware of the situation.

  It wasn’t just mines, but a plethora of them, filling every spot under the roads and wilderness surrounding them. The soldiers got to work, waiting for the drones, as the navy was also briefed of this matter as soon as it was known. It was a slow process. Furthermore, the more the army advanced, swiping those mines, the more their detectors showed more in their radars.

  They were allocated just enough to kill anyone standing on the corners of their maximum area. These mines were ‘liquid’ types, where once triggered, they would send tubes upwards and ignite a flammable liquid that has great unstable properties aflame. It doesn’t propagate, and it can only amount to a sudden explosion, not too large, more or less about 5-6 meters in diameter.

  These only had 2 or 3 tubes, depending on their model, but their explosiveness was the same. Those with 2 tubes were the ‘most modern’. To deactivate them, one of the methods was to send military bion-charged transmissions to the device in those tubes. It would tell them to turn off instead of going off. Then, a gun with a chain network was used.

  It would shoot a bout of chains with a sharp head connecting them to drill the ground for a few seconds. It had to be used precisely to retrieve the mines once deactivated before using a small remote control robot to disassemble them. It took time, but it was the safest and quickest approach.

  Of course, that was only for land. One fast method would be to bombard the places known to have mines, triggering them one by one. But this place was full of it, and who knew if they would spark a chain reaction. The latter would be better off, but it would definitely worsen the terrain.

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  If they could be triggered to a chain reaction without having to use the explosiveness from shells or grenades, one by one, and fast, it would be for the best. But that was only possible by aircraft.

  Chuf chuf chuf chuf chuf chuf chuf… A notable sound from a helicopter sounded from the distance, bringing attention to the soldiers sweeping the mines. They finished doing their last mine before heading back, with the chopper already waiting above their heads with a quirky barrel held below its belly.

  “Cavalry is here, I suppose.” The colonel leading this brigade with the mine-sweeping equipment crossed his arms and thought, looking at the helicopter waiting for his soldiers to retreat. Then, once the sweaty, breathless soldiers returned, a rushing soldier came to him with a radio, 2 mm thin and almost a male adult’s palm in size. It had a screen with auxiliary buttons below and on the sides.

  “Colonel, the Admiral tasked our commander to prepare you the road first. A few others are getting well-equipped, we are just working like bait. Mind if we take it from here?” The radio echoed with the chopper’s co-pilot’s voice. The colonel looked at the chopper, nodding. “Go ahead. Make these soldiers’ lives better before going there. Pave that road.”

  “Yes, colonel.” The co-pilot responded before going silent. The chopper in the distance moved its quirky barrel, looking a lot like an ‘armored’ faucet, elongated and straight, as it aimed down. The light support helicopter flew about 50 meters above the road, starting by the first spot in front of the last place the soldiers swiped.

  It turned sideways, facing the front and back of the road from its sides, with one of its doors sliding open, revealing a soldier manning another quirky barrel, but this one looking like a thin cannon instead.

  The helicopter began moving forwards at a speed of 4 meters per second. The barrel at its belly threw silvery-sparkling ‘dust’ downwards. It seemed feeble, to flutter in the wind aimlessly, but it fell down quickly. As the helicopter spouted a bout of it on the ground, mostly at the center, where the helicopter now knew where the mines were, it did the same to the next place.

  It was well calculated, with the silvery dust falling all over each mine’s spot, and with a dedicated amount at the center, where the tubes are supposed to come up from. Then, once the helicopter was more than 80 meters from the first dusted spot, the man at the barrel pulled a trigger, shooting something looking like a black ball, viscous, and heavy like a cannonball.

  Pfu- booooom! When it landed on the area of the mine, tubes soared from underneath for the first time. They sprayed a pale green color, with a spark coming off from both tubes’ mouths a second after they poured copious amounts to each other and fell on the ground around them.

  A large explosion sounded, but it lifted more dirt than into the air. Explosions with 5-6 meters in diameter weren’t small. The explosive wave they would have was always quite powerful for mines like these. If the helicopter was 30 meters from the edge of the initial explosion, it could be swayed a bit.

  The explosion looked like it was stopped by an invisible wall, forcing its power to simply explode more powerfully in the area without spreading to the sides or far above as it would have. The land after the cloud of dirt settled down was only rocks and a semi-smoothened path.

  “Look at that.” The colonel shook his head with his crossed arms still. The soldiers watched with interest, having something to do to keep their nervousness and uncertainty at bay. Some had already thrown up after stopping before the Terkan border.

  Now, with the sight of their usually light-humored, always helpful light support helicopter enter the enemy territory and clean the land from sure death traps for them, they were reminded why they were here.

  … After a few minutes, with the convoy lagging behind for 5 minutes before they could help by using their drones and a tankette with that type of cannon equipped, the skies were as black as it could get. There were not enough lights to illuminate it, with the city in the distance with nearly all its lights off, strangely.

  The soldiers felt exposed even when this was nighttime, as if the whole world was watching them, looking and pointing fingers at them. While this did not eat their conscience away, the sensation could be distracting. Something the colonel conveyed to the others, being the first to step foot into Terka.

  Pfiu- whhooooossshhhh… At this moment, as the night left everything dark, and it was just past 10 PM, the skies emerged with a sound. The skies were black, and no orders or notices from anywhere reported an incoming warplane on their part.

  “Take cover!” The colonel’s eyes widened when he looked at the sky where the helicopter slowly came to a stop. After he shouted, with other officials yelling at the top of their lungs, he immediately ordered the helicopter to retreat.

  “Take cover! Enemy aircraft is passing nearby!” - “Taaake cover!” - “They are too far from the vehicles’ radars, we can’t see them. The helicopter…” - “Behind your armor, punks! Take cover!” - “Kiss the ground until I say so!”

  … KA- booooom! The helicopter slightly elevated and rushed to the sea, with a Frigate clearly in movement towards the shore. But while the light helicopter was really fast, and it even used its ‘airgills’ to challenge aerodynamics at its rear sides, a strike warplane was much, much faster.

  In several seconds, while either standing behind or below the armored vehicles, the soldiers watched the helicopter turn into a complete burst of an explosion, spreading nearly a dozen meters in diameter in the air.

  “…” The thousands of early stationed soldiers watched the helicopter’s last remains land to where it was headed, north to the sea. The enemy warplanes didn’t go after them, clearly still respecting Cors, somewhat. They circled, showing off a little after destroying the helicopter.

  Shortly after, the frigate turned around and returned to its position. Silence decorated the hearts of every Lymocan soldier. As the enemy warplanes could barely be seen passing above them, a few hundred meters in front, one soldier grabbed a missile launcher and aimed it at the sky. It had 2 large panels beside its butt, identifying the outlined shape of a warplane on one and their trajectory on the other.

  Pfh… The missile was launched after a couple of seconds, leaving a rapid contrail wherever it went, flying after one of the warplanes. They noticed it and reacted 2 seconds later, speeding up while throwing strange elliptical objects in the air, flashing with small yellow lights.

  The object imploded, sending spike-like items in every angle in a 20-meter radius before losing its force and speed. The missile launcher seemed caught between these just as it seemed it would dodge and follow the warplane, forcibly exploded in the air with the warplanes leaving.

  Step, step, step, step… The colonel walked to the soldier, whose hands trembled a bit and legs were already shaking. The soldier forgot to let go of such a massive object, often carried in its case by 2 soldiers for travel. Helping take the missile launcher off, the colonel tapped the sweating young man’s left shoulder, making him look up, and saying, “You did good, mijo.”

  The soldier lowered his head, still feeling a little bit down. A light helicopter was taken down so easily? They never saw such a thing, even when the organized crime used high caliber rifles, trying to either take down those helicopters or flying warplanes.

  “Did you… was that… they just did the first blood, man…” A soldier remained hung to his vehicle’s window, not daring to step on the ground. His face was afraid, sweaty, and trembling a little. But another soldier walked around the vehicle’s rear and tumbled the stupid soldier down, waking him up momentarily.

  “No, they didn’t. They did when they killed one of us and beat the rest.” The official spat those words to the soldier’s face on the ground before turning around to check on the others of his unit. His annoyed faced relaxing slightly.

  Similar conversations took place around the soldiers, who became sober again, their comrades’ deaths only making them feel resolute about their role here. Even at this point, any soldier might forget why are they so far from home, but seeing this directly from hundreds of years of peace… That, they won’t forget.

  “High command has been alerted! They are sending us aircraft to deal with these!” The colonel shouted in one spot, his words transmitted to his direct subordinates, who repeated his words to others in different locations. “Our brethren are coming soon! We’ll use the drones to start swiping everywhere. Free this land from any mines, then we’ll see if their fucking toys come out again to play with ours!”

  “LYEEEE!” With the thunderous response from the soldiers across the temporary hold, they moved the vehicles and prepared to rapidly unload the incoming vehicles with drones and anti-mine ammunition.

  With the order from Luis’s permission and order to act, a team flew from Omecó towards Terka. For the speed of the warplanes Lymoca had, which could travel 2.1 thousand kilometers per hour at their peak, the army had a small timeframe to begin procedures.

  The navy also moved in closer, with the building momentum between both sides increasing every 10 minutes.

  When the Lymocan warplanes, multirole fighters that were more or less of the same generation, only with a better top speed than Terka’s, neared the site, 3 light helicopters flew out. Their frigates followed behind, fast and not stopping.

  At the same time, from the west, Terka’s warplanes sounded again, flying over to destroy those 3 helicopters, but the Lymocan fighters were obviously faster.

  “Here they come, here they come…!” On the ground, a growing tension developed, causing the soldiers to momentarily stop and retreat from the tolls dividing Cors and Terka. They looked into the sky, only able to figure out both sides were nearing each other. Although it seemed to take a while, everyone knew how fast those damned things were.

  About to overtake the light support choppers, 5 Lymocan fighters flew into Terka territory. On the other side, the Lymocan fighters’ radars showed 11 enemy warplanes in total, and 3 at the head of a triangular ‘formation’ preparing to face off the 5 from Lymoca.

  But the Lymocan fighters weren’t turning away or taking evasive directions. The frigates behind them, even behind the helicopters, were closing in soon, so they were also a problem. The Terkan warplanes slowed down a bit, but 3 Lymocan fighters sped up when seeing this.

  Immediately, missiles were launched, targeting the 3 Lymocan fighters, which the one at the front didn’t seem to consider. When it was just closing in, the pilot exerted its top speed’s initiation, directing his fighter upwards to the right, and sending 2 missiles off while its belly was caressed by not just a few enemy missiles. The Lymocan fighters behind had already flown to the sides and engaged in a dog fight.

  Booom! One enemy Terkan fighter was downed. The first Lymocan fighter destroyed it with 2 missiles, one failing to hit its tail, the other landing squarely behind the pilot’s cabin. The Lymocan pilot slowed down and joined the dog fight, taking another 2 Terkans down from those 3 at the beginning with a rapid, risky maneuver positioned higher than the rest.

  The 5 Lymocan fighters were locked by machine guns, which they outran not by speed, but their maneuvers. And as it continued, with the Terkan warplanes coming closer, the Lymocan fighters separated, but they also formed a strange net with the Terkans, before helping each other with multiple cross-lined machine guns’ fire and selective missiles.

  Boom boom boom boom boom boom…!

  …