--- 01/27/2030 ---
“What do you think, doctor?” Tiago asked. All those residents are still huddled together, staring at the group. He feels a bit uncomfortable with it, but he understands that for them, his group is something strange and unusual.
“Well, I was going to suggest that we take her with us to NewLand” — that was the name chosen for the base being built around the portal at this very moment. “However, she is very fragile, and we don't have the necessary equipment in the vehicles to evacuate this civilian with us.” Everyone listens attentively as Luana speaks. Tiago remains silent, thinking about what to do. He wants to build good relations with these people so it will be easier to find the hostages. But if he lets this woman die, it could jeopardize the plans.
“I think I have a solution,” said Gabriel, raising his hand. He notices that everyone is looking at him with a gaze that doesn't seem very interested in what he has to say.
“Well, any idea is welcome,” Tiago says this and then gestures for Gabriel to share his thoughts.
Gabriel adjusts himself and begins to speak. “While we were at the NewLand base, I saw a few dozen modernized M113 ambulance vehicles. I believe that if we request at least one of these ambulances, the command might send it. Of course, I can't think of a better justification than helping a civilian and establishing trust.”
“What the kid says makes sense, and it might work,” says Lucas.
“I agree, it doesn’t hurt to try,” says João, agreeing with Lucas while adjusting his Imbel rifle.
“I’ll get in touch with the base. There is a strong possibility they won’t accept our request to help an unknown civilian, but since we’re not far from the base, I believe that if they agree, the M113 could reach our current position in a few hours.”
Tiago steps away, takes his radio, and contacts the base.
---
Thalassa watches the whole situation unfold and is very curious about how these humans try to help almost everyone. She looks at Selena and sees a confused expression, as if she didn't quite understand the conversation that just took place.
“Don't worry, I also had a bit of difficulty understanding their language at first.” She tries to comfort her friend.
“Thanks for the encouragement. But I don't know if I want to delve too much into their culture and languages. I just want to leave, and you know as well as I do that we are prisoners. Who guarantees that they will actually release us once they find their people who were taken? And as far as I know, the empire must have already sold these people to all possible regions. It will be almost impossible to locate everyone, and you know that, Thalassa.” Selena says all this in her own language to ensure that these humans do not understand her.
Thalassa doesn't know how to respond to her friend; she knows Selena is right. They aren't 100% sure they will be freed even after helping these people. And indeed, the empire has probably already spread the captured people to work as slaves throughout the empire. She looks at Selena. “We have no choice, and I may not show it, but I share your concerns.”
“Then why don’t we escape?” Selena says determinedly.
Thalassa has already considered this possibility. But as an elf, she promised to help these people, and if what they say is true, they could really help her people with their technology.
“We're not going to do that, and don’t say such a thing again!”
Selena is perplexed by what Thalassa said. This made her a little angry and distressed; she doesn’t want to work for these people. If the empire captures them, they won’t understand that they were forced to help the enemy. And she is still wearing their uniform.
Before she could respond, she is interrupted by Bianca, who says loudly, “I don't want you two talking in your language. Speak in Portuguese! Because if I find out you two are plotting something, I’ll put a bullet in both of your heads myself!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” says Alice. “Calm down, they have the right to speak in whatever language they want!”
Seeing the tension rising, Luana decides to intervene.
“Bianca, I understand your frustration, but don’t have that kind of attitude. We have a role to fulfill here, and I’m sure Thalassa and Selena know the risk of doing anything to harm this group. And as long as we’re all together, we will complete this mission as satisfactorily as possible.” She looks at Thalassa and Selena. “You two are free to walk around the village. This world is yours, so you can interact with the local residents. You are helping us, so you are not our prisoners.”
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Luana sees the surprised expressions on Thalassa, Selena, and Alice. They didn’t expect something like this.
“Pedro and Gabriel,” she calls for them, and they quickly approach.
“Ma’am!”
“You two will accompany them. Ensure their safety. I know these villagers probably don’t want to harm us. But they are unarmed, so I don’t want to risk any sudden incidents.”
She watches the five of them leave. Then Tiago approaches.
“I’m sorry, sir,” she says as she looks at him. “But I had to do something about this situation.”
“There’s no need to apologize, you did the right thing. I would have done the same. By the way, I managed to contact the base. It was difficult to convince them, but they’re going to send an M113 ambulance.”
“That’s excellent!” Luana is shocked by this news; she believed the command wouldn’t agree to this request. It seems they are a bit more flexible. “But what did you do to convince them?”
“Well, I just highlighted the benefits of sending us an ambulance, and from what I understand now, all Explorer units will have an M113 ambulance version as soon as a considerable number of ambulances are available. I convinced them to use our unit as a ‘test’ for this implementation.”
“I must admit, that was pretty clever, sergeant,” says João.
“I am a very intelligent person,” Tiago replies sarcastically.
“Really?” Pedro says rhetorically with a touch of humor.
Everyone then laughs.
--- Fighter Squadron, 01/27/2030 ---
New Land Improvised Air Base.
Lieutenant André is seated in a chair in an improvised auditorium. In front of him is an officer and a large screen displaying data and a map of the region explored so far.
He is not alone in the room; with him are dozens of aviators and drone pilots. The officer is explaining that in the last few days, three reconnaissance drones have been shot down, two by a mysterious force that, for some reason, attacks the drone from above, and one drone was destroyed by an enemy air patrol. Before being shot down, the drone captured an image of dozens of approaching enemy aerial vectors. These are the same types that attacked Campinas; the command has yet to decide on a name for these flying creatures that these enemy soldiers use.
The officer looks directly at André. “André, you will lead an interception squadron against this enemy formation. I don't want these bastards catching our boys on the ground by surprise.” He displays an image on the screen, showing the enemy force. “At their current speed, they could reach us in 12 hours. That's why we're going to intercept them before that. With our fighters, we can intercept them two hours before they approach New Land Base.”
André thinks about how interesting these things are; he knows they are enemies, but he thinks it would be fascinating to fly one of these creatures.
The officer closes the slide and turns off the large monitor. “Well, now I’ll present the aerial vectors we will use in this mission.”
...
André is in the cockpit of his Gripen NG-BR. He looks at his mission data on his screen and makes some notes. Then he glances around and sees how efficient the army engineers are. In just a few days, they have expanded the runway to support more aircraft. He wonders how long it will take for some Embraer KC-390 cargo planes to cross. They will probably have to remove the aircraft's wings so it can pass through the portal.
The Gripen is a versatile and low-cost combat aircraft, primarily developed to operate on improvised runways by Sweden due to the fear of war with Russia in Europe. In the end, it resulted in an incredibly effective and technological plane.
He sees five Gripens being loaded with seven BVR Meteor missiles and infrared Iris-T missiles. He also sees ten F-5 Tiger II fighters. All are being equipped with three short-range MAA-1 air-to-air missiles and two medium-range Derby air-to-air missiles. The F-5 is an old fighter, but these models have been modernized. The government planned to retire 100% of the fleet by 2035, but with the appearance of the portal, they decided to use some units still in operation to complement the Gripen squadrons that crossed the portal.
Both the Gripens and the F-5s are equipped with extra fuel tanks, increasing the mission's range. In total, there are 16 aircraft for this mission and one reconnaissance drone.
To attract the attackers' attention, a reconnaissance drone will be used. It will be launched first to lure the enemies away from the portal. While they are distracted by the drone, the squadrons will choose their targets and launch the missiles. At this point, the enemies will likely not yet have visual contact with the aircraft. As soon as the first wave of missiles hits the target, a second wave will be launched. At this stage, the enemies will already have visual contact with the interceptors. In the third phase, the aircraft will have to get closer, and there will be close-range combat. The orders are not to pursue the enemy at all costs. It is expected that they will flee as soon as the first or second wave of missiles hits them. The missiles are designed to intercept aircraft, so the warheads are fragmentation types, but they are perfect for attacking these large formations. The shrapnel should hit one to three attackers simultaneously due to their fragmentation warheads.
--- 10 minutes later ---
The drone had already departed for the mission. All the fighters had the drone in their radar visuals. It was time for the aviators to take off as well. André closed his cockpit and visor. The engines roared to life, producing a beautiful sound as all the fighters began maneuvering down the runway. The fighters maintained a distance from each other. As soon as André’s Gripen took off, one by one, the remaining aircraft followed. In no time, they were all in formation. A large V-formation could be seen by any observer on the ground. At the forefront of the formation was André, the leader of this squadron for the interception mission.
André checked the radar, and it seemed the mission was going well. He couldn’t see the drone in his field of vision, but it was clearly visible on the radars. “Everyone keep an eye on the radars; we don’t want to be caught by surprise by these creatures. They can come from any direction,” he told his squadron. “As soon as the enemy takes the bait, prepare to fire the first wave of missiles. I want to take down as many as we can before we get close. Understood?”
“Copy that!” all the aviators responded.
The Gripen’s AESA radar has the capacity to engage up to 20 targets simultaneously. Knowing this, André hopes to neutralize most of these targets. The radar can detect any non-stealth object, but the engagement limit forces him to focus on specific targets at this moment. The air force hasn’t managed to get a radar plane through the portal yet, which slightly hampers the range. The ground radar is still under construction. Without the reconnaissance drones, they would only know about these enemies from the Gepard Anti-Aircraft Vehicle radars and some SABER M60 radars for short-range, low-altitude targets. They could certainly shoot down most of them, but they might cause some damage to the aircraft stationed on the ground. The tactic of using drones to monitor specific points is working while waiting for the ground radar to be completed.
--- Time until interception: 20 minutes ---
“Attention, everyone reduce speed to below Mach 1.”
André ordered this as soon as multiple objects were detected by the radar. With all aircraft below Mach 1, they would have time to fire two waves of missiles before initiating close-range combat to scare off or shoot down as many hostiles as possible. He watched as the drone attracted the attention of several dozen enemies, splitting them into two large groups.
“Jesus!” one of the pilots exclaimed. “There’s definitely a hundred of them.”
“Be careful, choose your targets,” André ordered. “They may have split the formation in two, but there are still a bit more than 50 hostiles coming our way. When the battle starts, hit and run.”
“Sir, why would they send almost 50 of these creatures after a single drone?”
“They’re smart. They don’t know what they’re dealing with. Even though they’ve shot down some of our drones, they like to use numbers to their advantage. Little do they know this drone is unarmed. That’s why the targets of the second wave are those chasing the drone. But be careful, pilots. Once we start taking them down at close range, the survivors will reorganize to try to crush us with their numbers.”
“But how are you so sure, Lieutenant?” one of the pilots asked.
“Because that’s what I would do,” he replied.
“They don’t know what they’re dealing with,” said one of the pilots with a confident laugh. All the pilots laughed in agreement.
As soon as the targets came within range, the missiles were fired. Each fighter launched a missile toward the large formation, visible only on the squadron’s radars for now.