Ters-Ly War (4)

  With everyone already looking up, they saw a few short missiles fly from behind to the front, flying towards the incoming missiles rushing at the heavy cargo from afar, where enemy warplanes were just dots in the distance.

  Before the missiles could get closer than 100 meters to the retreating heavy cargo, the short missiles exploded, creating a sudden burst of fire followed by smoke and a 'bang' that destroyed the enemy missile. This repeated several times while the heavy cargo’s small machine guns automatically fired high into the sky, making the enemy warships sway left and right.

  The SAs continued diving, already preparing to glide and slide into the ground, landing without parachutes. The enemy warplanes clearly saw them, as they changed their destination a bit once the heavy cargo was a bit too far to follow, and with the Lymocan fighters rushing close.

  Pvwaaang, pvwwaaaaaaaanng~!

  The enemy warplanes flew rapidly, but the Lymocan fighters were faster and had more distance to traverse than them. With the former launching rockets at the ground, 2 fighters of 7, which separated to form a 3-prongued attack on the enemy, flew low in front of the SAs. They expelled devices from their lower rear, sending spikes covering where those rockets were aiming.

  Pupupupupupum… The rockets exploded one by one in the cloud of spikes, creating small explosions all over. But if those things had reached the ground, they would’ve made tens of meters worth of grass and trees turn ashy.

  Fwweeesh! Swip, swip, swip, swifff~! Below, the SAs ejected some more processed air from their propellants, aiming slightly up and extending their arms in a way, making a prepared gut bion extend up and down their arms and thighs. They were like bat wings, yet extremely resistant. They suddenly glided through the air at a faster speed. With the air expelled from their backs, as little and short as it was, they advanced incredibly fast above the field.

  Vvvrrooommm… vvvrooooooooooommm… Behind them were the 4 tankettes rushing to catch up. The SAs continued gliding a few hundred meters before their speed lowered, and they had to prepare for their individual landing. Above, the Lymocan fighters engaged the enemy warplanes.

  After protecting them from the rockets, the 2 fighters flying low were reached by enemy bullets, one became ablaze near the cabin and to the side, almost hitting the wing, forming a trail of fire alongside the cabin as well. The other only had some bullet holes, to which they responded with missiles first while rushing up, sending rockets once the enemy’s spikes were activated.

  Only a third of the rockets reached the enemy, but those were enough to explode one enemy warplane, make another rotate in the air while blasting away in a diagonal direction, and the others to start fleeing. Their wings turned, their pilots nervous to escape, and the chasing began.

  The fighters flew fast, using machine guns to pull all the enemy warplanes together. Like a lamb, and in panic, they were pushed to each other, with 2 fighters on their left, 2 on their right, one flying behind them, a little low, and the last 2 above the lonely fighter.

  With pure machine guns, not allowing any enemy to fly out of ‘formation’ with the tips of their wings or bellies bumping with each other, mauling them bit by bit.

  Prrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrr- bang, bang! CRASSSHH… whiiiistle… When an enemy warplane was far too damaged, not allowed to move between the small space where the fighters weren’t shooting, left out by its comrades. It burst into a small explosion from its lower right side. It crashed into the warplane above it before slamming back down, destroying the cabin of another.

  Another 2 enemy warplanes were reached when that one split into 3, with 2 small fractions landing on one. The cabin and engine of an enemy warplane were struck, immediately downing it diagonally, while another was struck on one of its wings, cutting it off in one motion.

  The SAs fell on the ground, some running off in the distance and others rapidly coming to a stop with a slight movement from their feet, only needing a few taps to stop. Fox immediately crouched and took his DLM from his lower back before kneeling to aim at the sky.

  When the other saws this, they turned around to check the skies again, this time more seriously. There was an enemy warplane coming towards them, escaping aflame from the encirclement. The fighters chased it, with one of them returning to fly in front of them and protect them, forcing the enemy with only the possibility to escape in the direction of the battlefield ways away.

  Fox turned around while half-kneeling, aiming at the thing a few hundred meters away between the altitude and the distance between him and it. In the end, Fox didn’t have a chance to shoot, with too many variables at play.

  But just as the enemy warplane was employing as much speed as possible in its current condition, Fox aimed and shoot twice, making the warplane tilt after the second, with a bullet bouncing off its right wing. Seeing this, Fox shot again, ensuring he at least fired near the warplane. Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!

  Fox made the enemy warplane tilt a few times, enough to uneven its stability for 2 fighters to catch up, which bathed the enemy with 2 missiles each, sending it into the flames of destruction. As it exploded in the air, noticeable from far away in the battlefield, Fox slowly lowered his DLM.

  Pvwaaaaaaang, pvwaaaaang, pvwaaaang~! The fighters turned and flew a hundred meters above their heads, causing some ruckus on the ground, but they were safe now. Like a show of gratitude for the escaping enemy warplane, the fighters then shoot off into the distance, while a Frigate moved towards here as 3 fighters in partial flames headed to the ocean.

  “Cough, cough, cough, cough…!” The previous restraint Fox put on his body earlier on seemed to get back at him, making him cough some red blood with black bits as he installed his DLM on his back again. Nala stood before him, when Fox finished coughing, taking his helmet off to wipe his mouth, with the helmet cleaning the blood off the helmet with targeted suction.

  Putting it back on, he looked to their back, where the tankettes were finally catching up after not a long wait, and pointed at them. “Take your equipment out. We’re advancing west, then a little south. Don’t get separated, and when in battle, keep up.”

  Fox walked a bit ahead of everyone, stopping as Colmillo’s tankette stopped a few meters to his right. He walked to the back, where the auxiliary, almost 25 cm thick gates opened, revealing bags of equipment and supplies.

  He grabbed his before taking everyone else’s out from Colmillo’s tankette. The other representative captains and Captain did the same, giving their stuff to their SAs to check their things. The bags were strongly held by the holds inside the tankettes, or they might’ve flown around. In retrospective, Fox prepared 3 sets of dual comets for everyone, and 2 sets of pivots.

  Each set of pivots was four of them, to launch in every lateral direction if necessary. Furthermore, some members of each echelon in the company had a camera transmitting real-time footage back to Lymoca. Of course, only those who knew about the District can watch it with the President or at least the vice president.

  Like this, the SA company entered their tankettes and started driving off to the road. They landed on an open field with hills, and slightly far from the roads. With the tankettes, it wouldn’t take them more than a few minutes to get there, but to reach the abandoned city, several hours, maybe even until evening or nighttime.

  … Back at Lymoca, in the presidential precinct in Proteros. In a dedicated room, a little too large, which could be used for something better, Luis stood at the back while the people aware of Piya Sanctum District watched the interiors of tankettes from the cameras.

  Lesly walked to him, showing him the documents in a folder of things she wanted to discuss. Luis looked at this and then at her face before taking the folder. She waited at the side, wearing a resolute expression.

  When Luis finished reading and looking at the pictures, he sighed and stared at the ceiling, exhaling heavily before looking back at her. “I would’ve given this more thought. Maybe saying that I would first wait to see if there’s a need. But that does not make sense with how I’ve acted with Terka. Since that is so… I authorize you the investigation. Keep it under wraps, and take whoever you need. This is pretty important, but listen to me on this, okay?”

  “I trust you,” Lesly nodded, taking the folder back. Luis nodded before looking at the big screens showing the SAs’ surroundings. Lesly turned around after seeing the heaviness in his eyes, feeling warm from the glint of his sharp gray-blackness in the last second he looked at her.

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  She already had some people in her mind, with one of them being Jennifer Paws, who could give so many free passes to confidential information, not because of law, but because of underhanded means. After all, to investigate the ‘dealings’ ANS has had, and still has, with not just Lymoca’s OC, but around the world without meeting the public eye, it would prove difficult.

  … In Terka’s capital, after the reports from the Lymocan heavy cargo arrived, along the destruction of another 5 warplanes being destroyed by the Lys, the president sat behind his desk, holding his slightly chubby face.

  “How can there not be, ever, a win against their air forces!? It’s nothing new! We have nothing to surpass them with, but they’ve already neutralized half my aircraft! At least warplanes! But still!” He complained, looking at his generals and the cabinet general. They were silent.

  But, what could they say? Nobody would gladly admit an entire military force such as the air force to be significantly weaker than the enemy’s, especially when the enemy had fewer warplanes, even if many combat and support helicopters.

  “We have nothing to do there, your excellency. There’s also this report… of a Lymocan fighter flying around our cities, exactly avoiding where our anti-aircraft systems are aiming, or far enough from their reach.” With the cabinet general not offering a word, another general spoke up and sweated, realizing how difficult it was to speak of those matters when the moment arrived.

  “Why are you telling me this?” The president looked at his generals before asking himself once more, “Why was there even so much protection for just a heavy cargo aircraft? What’s the matter with it?”

  “That can’t be…” The president thought of something and looked past his generals. His eyebrows creased with worry, showing incertitude. “Could those be their special agents? Such as… Fox? Are they here already? Why did our hoog not tell us this? What’s going on?”

  Being at war for weeks already, of course Terka and Lymoca denied their country’s TV programs from reaching each other. Even in social media, both parties’ communications’ experts blocked and saturated the other side’s officials with useless information, hacking them to not be able to get anything from each other.

  “That won’t do!” The president stood up, slamming his table without intending to. “Send bombers. No matter how many fighters they have, they can’t keep… can’t… keep ‘patrolling’ our movements directly with their fighters… Just do as I say, send those SAs to their deaths here!”

  “Heng! I wonder what reward will ANS give us when we deliver the news.” He sat back down and looked at his generals, “You all know what to do, don’t waste more time here. Just go show your soldiers you are like them with fraternity and whatever else, go on!”

  … Hours and hours later. The world was in awe, knowing there were already battlefields in Terka, although it was only one in the north, a little to the south, so far. The Terkan army exchanged vehicle with vehicle, with a couple Lymoca fighters falling and exploding and their pilots becoming a rapid rescue/hunt mission for both sides.

  Every hour, any important matter that wasn’t urgent was reported, while every 10 minutes, the temporary HQ in Terka would send the detailed orders of the high officials and advances, stops, or retreats of both sides. Luis was busy, but he was still paying attention to when the SA company would arrive at the abandoned city.

  “Get out.” Fox commanded with a dull voice. He was the first to open the gates at the front sides of the truck, behind the drivers. He stepped out with his DLM on his left arm, rushing a few meters to the side, with the others doing the same after a second from both gates.

  The other tankettes followed suit, with the drivers forming a line and driving to the side. As intended, 2 echelons would remain in the tankettes, this time Captain Nauer and Lian, while the Red and tech echelons would enter the city and prepare the place.

  They had to do simple things, such as checking for enemy sightings, in case there were any after the enemy only suffered more from their self-bombarding. Then, establish a communication device to extend the reach of the temporary HQ so it could become an intelligence post, and the Lymocan forces could finally build their HQ somewhere near the center.

  Some SAs from the White and Green echelons went to the Red and tech tankettes to drive and monitor them for their echelons. They drove to the side, ensuring there wasn’t anything in their detectors showing readings of being seen or detected instead, to find a place to hide them and wait for Raging Blood’s signal to mobilize again.

  Fox led the rest into the abandoned city, with each of the120+ people from the 2 echelons rushing alongside him. They carried their bags with all their equipment and extra ammunition. Their bions were hidden within the medium NUA, especially and slightly modified by PSD to work with such above-military, unique bions.

  They rushed to the abandoned, bombed city in ruins’ outskirts, with Luis and everyone in the large room becoming interested. They were still working on their stuff, with Luis checking the reports when needed, but his eyebrows frowned when looking at the screens.

  Fox didn’t have a bodycam. He simply refused to have one. Only Wheel, Nol, had a bodycam in Nala’s team, with him and other 2 from Nala’s Red echelon. The tech echelon also had 3 bodycams, all becoming bigger in the large screens of the room. The other 6 from White and Green echelons became smaller, giving intelligent audio to the 6 big screens.

  A few minutes later, with the 120+ SAs moving into the city’s center, where Piya Sanctum District caught a distress signal from Terkan civilians after the bombardment, the 2 echelons slowed down.

  Fox sat on a spot, taking cover from both sides and the front behind a destroyed building, before taking a rather sizable communication device from his military bag. He set it on the ground and waited a couple of minutes before a worker in Luis’s room signaled with a thumbs up.

  Fox picked a small, thin radio from it after it beeped for half a second, immediately speaking to it, “General Plomo. What are the specifications?”

  “Fox… The place is a large rectangular building. It is about 1,000 meters long on the surface, but it goes down a few hundred meters more. It’s only about 200 meters wide, so you won’t miss it. The last image before the Terkans received satellite help to counter ours was of its roof slightly obstructed with debris from the bombardment.” A voice sounded from the other end.

  Communication was detailed, without any interference. The only inconvenience was to wait until the connection was secured, and that the enemy didn’t have an intelligence base nearby to take the communications down. It was rare and immeasurably difficult to pry upon these, but it could happen, as the PSD did, although there wasn’t much difficulty this time…

  Fox picked his communication device and walked off, bringing the echelons to the center of the city. According to history, this city was the capital of Terka after the Lylaco Empire fell, wanting to stand strong against the Corsel Empire and Cerka, once some nations formed and others continued as they were before becoming nations, too.

  They also wanted to compete with Melenon in the aquamarine business, be it fishing, trade routes, or navy. They weren’t doing bad, but after ANS half-stabilized, Terka, Torka, and Cerka became parties who saw each other better, and let go of some opportunities.

  Thus, the Terkan capital was moved to the central south, where it had Torka on its east and Cerka on its south. Collan and Melenon, who had larger parts of their territories bordering with Terka, wouldn’t get ‘thoughtful’ this way. While the Corsel Empire, on the other hand, couldn’t invade one point before being invaded from all sides.

  While the countries that are now existent have let go of their past kingdom-ish desires, the Corsels haven’t been able to survive and thrive this long because of luck.

  When Fox stepped into another block, still about 25 minutes from the center of the city, he stopped. His left foot was like the pulse of a developed, evolved animal confirming its surroundings. Not for him, but it seemed that way as the other SAs stopped and switched their safety triggers off.

  Fox looked back at his SAs before subtly nodding, not even caught by the high-definition, water and powerful impacts-proof cameras. Then, he advanced rapidly without running, simply moving his legs with long strides, his DLM aiming at his shoulders level while lowering his presence.

  When Luis and the room felt tensing up, Fox suddenly jerked his aim, pointing upwards in a few directions while shooting a few times each. With the thunderous sounds beginning, the others watched the sides, occasionally shooting without losing rhythm. Even when a few had to half-kneel and go submachine gun mode to deal with an enemy the cameras fleetingly showed, others took their places, covering each other.

  The SAs advanced this way, not stopping, although their speed slowed down a bit. Fox was particularly eye candy in this situation, aiming here or there before there could be an enemy shooting at them, with the occasional body falling from high altitudes.

  Nala and her team occasionally aided him, shooting some themselves as they continued, treating all those hidden shooters like they were nothing.

  When looking at this for a few minutes, a pair of experts in the large room looked at each other, commenting as Fox continued killing at least 1 shooter per 2 seconds. “That Fox is something, eh?” - “Who would have thought… Was he like this in Preut, or did he improve?” - “Who knows? Just look at him, it’s like… well, he doesn’t care, does he?”

  “…” Luis looked at this with crossed arms and didn’t know how to react. He never saw how SAs worked, much less some of the caliber of the best firsters in the District. Now that he was seeing it almost first-handed, he felt it was too boring.

  After several minutes with gunshots ringing nonstop, the 2 echelons’ firing decreased to a gradual stop. The silence was new in the room, with all eyes on it just as Luis got another 10 minutes report. He looked at the screens.

  … Fox identified something in the distance, still several crossroads away and with only its corner visible, but that could be the what-could-have-been presidential ‘precinct’ of Terka.

  After chasing some shooters with his rifle before, who just wanted to flee after realizing it was hopeless to aim at them, or hope they weren’t seen, Fox directed his people to be on alert overall. With the numerous shooters having hid everywhere as high as they could with good angle to shoot them and anyone coming near, this wasn’t a simple situation.

  Regardless, he could see the building was still standing strong, with at least one corner not broken, so he walked towards there at a fast step. The echelons separated between the streets, walking around the pulverized vehicles by the debris and the land surface they could deem safe with just their eyes, swift and agile.

  After walking for a few hundred meters more, with the angle where the building was visible widening in Fox’s sight, they arrived. Fox stopped at the corner, checking the building more from the front, with its gates open, but it seemed ‘touched’ to him. There were people living in this building, maybe knowing what could follow, managing to save themselves.

  It wasn’t impossible to survive such careless city bombardments, especially when the Terkan forces also put explosives within the city that only help create a bigger ‘boom’ overall against the infrastructure. But it was rare. After all these cities, about 2,000 have been found dead, with only about 17 survivors.

  …