- The Kingdom of Apolyon’s Airspace, 10km from Hornet’s Nest-
- 0550hrs, local time –
“Tower to Alpha flight, runway 01 is clear. You’re cleared to land”
Said the control tower to the Pilots. The similar clear blue skies and clean scenery feasted their eyes on their journey home, they even turned on Autopilot mode just to enjoy the scenery with coffee and some snacks in the cockpit. However, as they were now on the approach route to the FOB, the captain turned off the autopilot and took over the controls again. It was a tiring mission, they had to stay awake in shifts to guard the Condor when the Alpha team were doing their mission back then. Even so, it is even more tiring for the Copilot since he has to do field surgery for one of the members of the fireteam. It’s a good thing he trained himself to be a field medic beforehand, though, it’s a useless effort since his patient was shot dead by his own squad leader.
“Jaeger is a bit cold, isn’t he? I mean… surely it’s an order but damn… to think he didn’t hesitated at all” said the copilot, still enjoying his morning coffee.
“I don’t know man, it’s his issue, not ours. It’s not like we can do anything about it at that time. It was the Silver Alpha’s order, he can’t say no to him”
“Fair enough- dude! a f**king bird!”
“Wait wha- OH SHI-!” the Pilot yanked the stick hard to the left, avoiding a bird strike by a millimetre. As the two sighed in relief at their quick save, the cockpit door suddenly burst open with Jaeger and his bleeding head, including an irritated look. “For god's sake, fly this thing properly you idiots!” he then slammed the door shut again. The two looked at each other for a moment and back at the door.
“That was quite comical”
“Very, he probably forgot to use the harness again” and they shared a huge laughter for several minutes until they landed.
On the tarmac, their transport craft opened its cargo bay, to the team’s surprise, the ground crew who gathered there were more than they thought. It includes medical staff, maintenance, and some others who are part of Apolyon’s military and were there for training. From afar, the Princess and the Prince are viewing them inside the hangar, far from the small crowd. Aurora had a concerned look on her face as she scanned the crowd to look for someone she started to hold dear.
Conrad noticed this and tapped her shoulder, “Sis, calm down, Your prince charming is fine remember? Remember what Countess Eoflora said?”
“That I shouldn’t worry too much?”
“indeed! You've been like this in the past few days, it’s quite worrisome!”
“I… I’m sorry for troubling you, Connie…” She looked down. Her brother always kept an eye on her behind her back to care for and protect her on every occasion and she felt quite guilty that he was not getting any rest in the past few days. She knew she was sometimes aloof with her surroundings when she was serious about something and when it happened, it troubles people around her sometimes. Conrad mellowed his expression, patting his older sister, “It’s okay, I’m not troubled at all. I like my sister who always expresses herself even though she’s very selective about the person she expresses herself to”
Aurora’s smile returned, “I’m glad that I have a brother like you”
“You flatter me, sis, ehehe. But anyway… looks like we can see your prince now” Conrad pointed in the direction of the cargo bay where there was a man in full military gear and exoskeleton walking down with two more men outside the aircraft. But little do they know that the team still has some strife, especially between Coyote and Jaeger. Suddenly, Coyote started throwing fists at Jaeger out of the blue which Jaeger dodged and a fight broke out. The ground crew tried to separate them but since the two were using exoskeletons, even with the power of twenty or more people, they couldn’t force them to calm down as they were too powerful.
“F**K YOU!” Coyote’s cuss echoed throughout the now calm airfield. Seeing this, the concerned nobility siblings rushed towards the tarmac to try to stop them. By the time they arrived, they saw both Coyote and Jaeger pointing their gun at each other. Both of their eyes were bloodthirsty, eager to kill each other. However, now, they can’t move as Jeanne steps in between their fight.
“Maj. Anderson, Lt. Col Wofenford, both of you are under detention until further orders. Ground crew! strip off their exoskeletons and confiscate their weapons! I don’t want to have any more dead men in our time here!!” She sternly exclaimed as she walked away.
Aurora & Conrad were utterly confused. Before the team went out, all of them were on good terms. Yet, as they returned, it was a complete 180 of their attitude between Conrad and Jaeger, though one of them didn’t say a word and just stood there since he didn’t want to get in between the two. As Jaeger and Coyote were handcuffed and escorted somewhere else after they stripped their exos off from them, the ground crew then started to do their work. To the siblings' surprise, the ground crew carried out a body belonging to one of the Alpha team’s members.
Aurora covered her mouth in disbelief and sorrow, to think one of them would die in battle just pains her heart. “Looks like they’re still humans after all… even Jaeger looks injured,” Remarked Conrad, staring at Jaeger’s back slightly concerned.
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“How did you know that?”
“his way of walking is off and there’s a massive hole in the back of his clothing, though, I think he recovered quickly with something that we don’t know…” As he looked back towards his sister, she was nowhere to be seen. He glanced left and right and saw her running, following the people who escorted Jaeger away “AH- SISTER! WHERE ARE YOU GOING!” He then started running to keep up with her.
A week has passed, and Jaeger was released from custody due to the need of him to be the centrepiece of the operation. However, he was thoroughly monitored by ABEL’s council agents who were also onboard the Yukikaze. As he walks out of his room and walks down the hallway inside the ship, he’s getting unfriendly stares from several of the crew that went past him.
He didn’t get bothered, maybe either because he already gotten used to that kind of treatment or he was very apathetic due to his biological enhancement back then. Then again, all he thinks of now is to head to the briefing room as per order from Jeanne. As he arrived, several people were already there, including Jeanne who was standing near the projected screen on a wall across the entrance of the room, crossing her arms, “Took you long enough, Did your ribs and pelvis heal already?” she asked.
“It did, thanks for putting a medical bay in my room.”
“You can thank me later, Take a seat” Jeager sat beside someone whom he was newly acquainted with, the Marquis, whom he shook hands with as he sat. Jeanne then started the briefing as she switched the mode of the projection.
“Jaeger, this mission is requested by the Marquis personally. ABEL’s mercenary council decided that you are to be reactivated for duty again.” She continued, switching the screen to show the current live footage on the FOB and nearby Apolyon military headquarters. “As you know, both this nation and Earth have a significantly different way of fighting. Currently, the Marquis requested us to have his men undergo training by our standards but most of us aren’t capable of training someone for our future operations, which is this;”
She then showed several pictures of a prototype humanoid machine that’s as tall as a human. “This is an experimental droid that was in development several days ago, it is a joint development between ABEL and this kingdom.”
She stopped for a moment, changing the projection, “While you know most droids that we made use a superconducting thermal hybrid battery for its power source, it lacks the endurance for long period mission time which the current energy source could only have it work for only 5 hours then it needed to recharge its battery. But since we now have a technology share treaty, Apolyon’s top researchers agreed to help us make a new type of droid powered by mana stones which in theory can have the droids operational for more than 5 months without recharging its energy supply.” She cleared her throat, as she looked straight at Jaeger.
“And here’s the thing, we’re going to have it to do live combat testing in 2 weeks since the Marquis will head out to the endless forest to check on the missing scouts that were in that forest.”
“And why am I related to this mission?”
“I want you to train his troops so they can handle modern weaponry we’re going to give along while you escort the droid. Even if it got destroyed during combat, retrieving its data chip and inserting it into your later MFD, all of the data that was inside it will be sent straight to the main server.”
“So, I’m like your insurance?”
“Technically speaking, yes.” He sighed and glanced back at her with a disinterested look. “You cut my detention time just for this?”
“It wasn’t me, it’s the council’s decision. They’ll pay you up more than the last op.”
Jaeger was silent for a moment, “Fine, I’ll do it. I’m one of your cards to play anyway…”
“… you’re somehow easily bribed these days”
“I have something in mind to buy in the first place. I’ll take whatever request even if it’s this trivial”
“Whatever you say, Archie, further information will be further informed by the Marquis. Dismissed"
Jeanne shut down the projector and left the room, leaving the two and some other members, which are the Marquis’ escorts. Jordan then stood up, stretching up slightly. “Well then, shall I brief you while we head towards the Forward Base or so that you people made?”
The two then walked out of the room, followed by his escorts. It was rather silent on their way to the hangar bay, none of them dared to start any conversation as it was quite awkward, even Jordan, who was supposed to brief Jaeger about the next operation. He knew the young merc had a lot in mind as he had just coldly murdered his teammate in front of the others by someone whose name is [Silver Alpha] whom he doesn’t know. The guilt was hard, he could feel it, even though he never had done such a thing in his life. “What did this young lad had went through…” he thought in silence, looking at Jaeger that has an irked expression.
The Marquis cleared his throat to gather Jaeger’s attention, “So, Young Wolfenford. I’ll brief you on what is our objective there”, he then pulled out a small letter from his pocket. “I received a message from our information department that the scout we sent towards the [Endless Forest] went missing. Their last received message was around four days ago. Our objective is to try to find out what happened to the scout unit and if possible… save them or the very least.”
“And what about the training part that Jeanne mentioned?”
“Oh, right! My men weren’t that accustomed to the weapons that your world lent us, such as the lightweight thing called “rifle” and the similar. Most of the instructors here were slightly too…”
“Too what?”
“Too soft on them”
“ah… I see why, bet they’re still being awkward with your countrymen sir, It’s quite common as they didn’t want you all to hate us who came from another world.”
The marquis stared at him with a rather unamused “That’s it??”.
“Pardon them if it doesn’t suit your way of training, sir” Jaeger slightly bowed, still walking alongside Jordan. The marquis had a moment to think if he just said to the instructors that they were being too soft, his issue wouldn’t be a problem. Then again, it’s most likely that Jaeger would still be involved in the operation they will do later on whether he does that or not. The more he looked at how they worked, the more the Marquis realised that the job called [Mercenary] isn’t great like Bounty Hunters or Adventurers as they seem to be… “disposable…”
“Pardon me?”
“Ah- no, nothing. I’m just thinking about something” Jordan silently sighed as he dodged that one. Who knows how it might hurt his feelings if he knew what Jordan was thinking? Then again, Jaeger knew what the Marquis was thinking as he had this kind of situation once.
BEEP BEEP
Suddenly, Jaeger’s phone rang and he quickly picked up the call. Though, a few moments later, he sighed, “Are you serious? She’s broke in again??”