- Somewhere in the woods on a hill, Beyond Comertora City walls -
- 2010hrs, local time –
- 5 minutes before the surgery finished -
Amidst the calm beautiful night filled with stars and the cool breeze of the wind, the harrowing scene of a massive creature could be seen wreaking havoc all around the Trade City of Comertora. Among the chaos of the monster causing destruction and the panic that occurs all over, a couple of streaking bright blue lights could be seen as it flew around the creature trying to capture its attention. It’s him, Jaeger, who’s still trying to avert the monster’s target onto him instead of the residents of the city.
“Oi! Over here!” the mercenary shouted with all his lungs, evading another tendril attack. As he slings his rifle to his back under pressure, he calls his AI assistant again while looking around the terrain to plan out something. “Ofnir! Are you even connected to the main server right now?! I can’t hold on any longer! That was my last bullet!”
[bypassing Condor’s repeater’s firewall in T minus 57 seconds]
“Sh*t!”
Jaeger dove down, and skimmed above the ground again, using the nearby buildings and going through the alleyways to lose the chase of the tendrils that were trying to get him. Luckily, he still had the photon sword in the hidden bay inside the side skirt jets. As he whipped out the hilt of the sword and lit on the blade, turning 180, three tendrils were squirming above the ground and rapidly closing the distance. He then swiftly sliced two of the tendrils and skimmed away to the alleyway on the left. He looked over his shoulder again to see the last tendril came with more reinforcement.
Suddenly, in the intersection in front of him, a person was dragged by the massive tendril towards the main body of the creature. “Help me!!” she said in fear, her voice drawn out slowly as she was pulled to a distance. [Sir, are you going to help the civilian?]
Ofnir’s question made Jaeger contemplate for a moment until the tendril that was chasing him was in its striking range and he slashed it right before it did anything to him. “They’re not our priority…”
[… if you say so…]
Beep beep beep beep
As Jaeger’s MFD beeps several times, Ofnir informs him with a slightly relieved tone, [I’m now connected to Yukikaze’s main data frame, looks like I somehow could access its cruise missile launch.]
“That’s even better! Send them in!”
[On who’s authority?]
“My authority! We have two high-ranking officers on that ship, and I’m one of them!”
[and what will your sister say if-]
“I’ll take full responsibility! My pay will be cut to pay for those missiles! We really need it right now!”
Ofnir hesitated for a moment but did what his master said. Far from them, back at the South Sea, where Yukikaze moored itself in the middle of the ocean near the capital of the Kingdom of Apolyon. Several of the Vertical Launch System cells or VLS for short, opened up their covers and sprung out more than seven subsonic long-range cruise missiles that headed straight to the Trade City Comertora. The CIC crew was in a state of panic as they didn’t receive any launch order while Jeanne on the other hand, was casually on her walk towards the command room at the FOB when she saw the trails of smoke that came from the boosters of the missiles. The next thing people around her saw was her crushing down her steel mug with just a single hand, twitching her eyes since she was speechless and very much pissed off about the situation. “That f**king bastard of a brother!!” she cursed as she hastily went 180 and headed to the docks.
Back at the fight, Jaeger flew up again as he nearly got cornered by the amount of tendrils that chased him and again, weaving here and there trying to not get caught or even scratched by the black unknown thing. It took him a while until Ofnir could detect the incoming missiles that were launched. [Sir, cruise missiles are inbound ETA 30 seconds. Move away from the target]
“Do the missiles track the target though? We don’t have any laser designators whatsoever”.
[I’m currently sending data straight to the missile’s guidance system, it’ll be a precision strike]
To Jaeger’s surprise, the missile arrived earlier than expected and detonated in a fiery blaze. Then another one came seconds later, detonated in the same bright explosion. “Holy s**t! You didn’t tell me that they’re THAT danger close!”
[I told you to clear the area! Why are we still flying around this damned creature?!?]
On the horizon, he can see a trail of jet fumes heading straight towards them. Knowing this, Jaeger then quickly flies away from the creature, between the trees and looking at the explosions from a hill. There are more than 6 consecutive hits of the missiles that were launched, Jaeger wasn’t expecting Ofnir to launch more than 3 missiles towards the monster. 5 minutes later, no more missiles came.
A total of 13 cruise missiles were launched, and every single one of them dealt a massive blow to the creature since it had tandem warheads that were designed to penetrate thick armour. From afar, the creature could be seen to have many massive holes and torn limbs here and there. Most of the tendrils fell to the ground near its foot or root if we assume it is truly a tree-shaped massive creature. It stopped moving after a few moments and its body started to rapidly decay, its main trunk and branches started to fall one by one to the ground, indicating that it had died.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“1-1 to alpha flight, target is neutralized. en route towards the LZ. 1-1 out”
He then turns around. Walking back towards where the transport craft is located. Didn’t take long for him to hike back and arrive there. The atmosphere there was in kind of disbelief since Thales and Point saw everything unfold in the battle. Their looks made Jaeger slightly confused, “What? Something on my face?”
“N-no, it’s just… we have long-range support? How come we didn’t get briefed on that?”
“Nah, I asked my AI partner here to bypass the CIC’s authority and launched several missiles. I was quite in a pinch that time and I don’t think I can defeat it with our current armament.”
“That… won’t we get questioned later on?”
“Meh, probably just me. But anyway…” Jaeger looks behind Point’s shoulder, straight towards the pilots who are carrying 60k on a stretcher. “Is he fine now?”
“Yea’, mate got a lot of holes and fractures here and there and miraculously survived. But anyway, we’re done with our job ay?”
“Yeah…” he looked behind, looking straight at the fume of smoke going up to the skies. “We’re done here, let's go back home”.
All of them packed up whatever they used outside the Condor and went inside, did took them 10 minutes to be up in the air and return to Apolyon’s territorial land. As they hovered away from their landing spot, all of them could see the aftermath of the battle. Half of the city was destroyed, and a mass of humans were waiting outside the gates of the city, being guarded by what looked to be a mass of adventurers trying to fend off less harmful monsters since some were swinging their torches in different directions. Fires started to appear out of nowhere as they seemed to be affected by the lanterns they left in their rooms as the citizens evacuated.
Coyote took a deep breath and sighed, relieved. “Glad all of that is over…” All of them nodded, excluding Jaeger, who looked like he was thinking about something, especially why the queen was their target and why his mother seemingly knew who to eliminate, etcetera.
“Yo guys! We got a call from HQ, I’ll patch ‘em in”. exclaimed the co-pilot. seconds later, the holographic projector lit up and showed Jeanne with her tablet PC like usual. though… her expression isn’t in a good mood.
“Well… looks like all of you are back in one piece after all that show with the tree thing you fought earlier” She then looked to her left where 60K was currently lying down unconscious. “Barely…”
She then cleared her throat and set her glare at Jaeger. “While I’m here to congratulate your accomplishment, I have a lot of f**king questions regarding the unauthorized salvo launches on the experimental hypersonic cruise missile model we just made right before our journey here. Especially a certain someone who BYPASSED THE DAMNED SYSTEM WITHOUT MY AUTHORITY!!”
“Oi, we’re the same rank”.
“But for the very f**king least Archie, you should’ve like… I don’t know… TALK ABOUT IT???” Jaeger just sighed; he knew that even if he wasted time just mere minutes just to compromise with his sister, it wouldn’t end well.
“Even if I try to compromise, you wouldn’t give a damn and made us fight with just small arms anyway. I know you well Jeanne, A lot of times you can’t discern which is urgent and which is not. And I was right... I made the right decision.”
Jeanne didn’t say a word, his words were right. She knew her flaw, though, those missiles she designed weren't done from testing which is why she’s quite angered at it. “Fine… You win this one, but- “
Jeanne’s transmission was cut off and another call suddenly came. The hologram only displayed a white square with a line in the middle which is an audio visualizer. The three got confused until a deep recognizable voice came out through the speakers. “This is Silver Alpha, are you receiving this Jaeger?”
“Wha- Dad!?’
“Call me by my callsign son, I have an order for you and only you” The three mercs gave a questioning look to each other. August then continues his words, “Neutralize priority target 2nd Lt. Danny Suarez, he’s a member of the CIA and FSB’s joint operation on wiping out our members.”
Coyote’s eyes widened and quickly stood beside his best friend’s unconscious body. “Jaeger, I beg you, don’t you dare do it”.
“Ignore his threat Omega Project patient 0311, This situation is at level Alpine information compromise. Eliminate the priority target”.
“Jaeger! You’re a merc! You can choose your job! Betraying your friendly merc is just lower than society’s trash!” Jaeger is just silent, standing looking like he’s contemplating what he should do. Coyote was relieved for a moment, “Jaeger, I know you’re better than this. Killing your teammate is just-“. but his relief was shot down hard.
5 unsuppressed gunshots were fired, missing Coyote by a millimetre, Jaeger whipped out his pistol faster than Coyote or Point could even react. His eyes were staring emptily towards 60K as if he was being hypnotized, emotionless even. His right hand was holding a .357 magnum semi-auto pistol which was smoking at the end of the barrel due to it being fired. On the back end of the cargo bay, the little girl, Alicia, was crying in fear as she never heard such a sound banging on her ears in her life before and seeing a dead body lying on the floor filled with a pool of blood terrifies her even more. Coyote’s eyes went wide in horror, knowing what just happened, while Point was speechless.
“Good work Jaeger, as expected from you. That’s one less loose end that we need to deal with. I’ll be there shortly with a destroyer capital ship. Silver Alpha out.”
Everyone was silent, Jaeger put his pistol back on his other holster and sat across 60K’s dead body in the seat. Covering his face that has a look of regret he can’t undo with his hands. Coyote slumped to the ground, crouching, in disbelief. To think 60K’s death was tragic, too tragic to be thought of. He then looked at his friend one last time and whispered a thank you before he turned around and aimed his sidearm towards Jaeger, who knew what he was doing.
“Go on… shoot me. I deserved it anyway.”
“Why did you shoot?”
“I-“
“WHY DID YOU SHOOT?!! WE WERE ON GOOD TERMS EARLIER UNTIL THAT BASTARD OF A FATHER OF YOURS CAME IN WITH THAT SICK ORDER! WHY JEAGER?! WHY?!!”
“I have no choice! I’m an experimental human! I was gaslighted to be the perfect soldier! You thought you could resist a program that was f**king planted deep inside your subconsciousness!? HUH!? YOU THINK YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE THAT’S SUFFERING RIGHT NOW!!!?”
The two bickered, calling names and such, and at a certain moment, Coyote shot his gun, nearly hitting Jaeger’s head. “I won’t miss next time…”
“You should’ve aimed for my head, b**ch…”
Moments later, Jeanne’s call returned and she was utterly surprised when she saw Coyote still pointing his pistol at Jaeger. “What the hell happened just now? Why is 2nd Lt. 60K lying dead there?” she asks, looking towards Point since he’s the witness and just standing between Jaeger and Coyote as the neutral one. The man pointed at the dead body across him which received an “oh” from Jeanne.
“Is General August the one that hacked my call?”
“Yes ma’am, he ordered Lt. Col Jaeger personally to…”
She sighed, “I did receive an order to capture anyone that’s working with a certain nation’s intelligence agency by the council and I was about to order you guys to apprehend Danny instead. But I guess the General is a bit too rough around moles… anyway, try to stop the blood from spreading all over the floor, I don’t want to see a rusted floor on the cargo bay. Those things are expensive to build”
Jeanne ended the call, Coyote went back to his seat still in his resentful stare towards Jaeger. The flight back to their base proceeded smoothly, though, what was different was that everyone was silent after all of that happened.