It was too risky and yet...

I need to count everyone.

Platoon Commander Junior Lieutenant Boris Kipito, Deputy Sergeant Will Averbon, Signalman Sergeant Itami Show, Machine Gunner Private Forn Shogner, Sniper Staff Sergeant Esko Jarvinen, Assault Sergeant Staff Sergeant Sieghard Koing, Grenade Launcher Sergeant Rohan Ring, Second Machine Gunner Sergeant Inias Gray, Gunner Private Nelson Redwhite, Medic Staff Sergeant Ajamal Faez, Senior Medic Junior Lieutenant Fred Gipron, Junior Medic Sergeant Iyad Fasih, Junior Medic Sergeant Kobe, Gunner Private Jero Dudlam, Gunner Private Mard Yimun, Gunner Staff Sergeant Andrzej Krawshenski, Sapper rank of Private Mshkhan Suf, the remaining shooters: Sergeant Happy Lemusa, Sergeant Krovis Bladerismag and Private Xiong Liu.

If any of them die, I will remember them. Their names will never get stuck in this miserable hole in the very ass of the galaxy. I will survive and remember them, or they will survive and remember me.

We were all going to form a special task force to rescue ship engineer Sigrun Reine from a native prison. Droid operator Stern Wiedenheim, a civilian known as Lawful, natives from the kingdom of Hippolyta: Niana, Alza, Ripun, Zaden; and representatives of the state of Lakuus: Granid, Incartia, Camellia, Ashwani, Furgur; meanwhile they would have to leave the city on a specially ordered carriage, and in the meantime we were preparing to make a lot of noise and spill a lot of blood.

I don't think we have enough ammunition to shoot everyone in this city, but we didn't need that. We just need to rescue Sigrun from prison and leave the city. We've already lost hundreds of people, and we're not going to lose another one, even if that person is responsible for getting into this mess.

The platoon checked their weapons and it turned out that only the machine gunners lacked ammunition, and therefore their role in the operation was limited. They will have to cover our retreat and will not be involved in the assault on the castle.

The doctors will monitor the movements of the natives and, if anything happens, they will also provide medical assistance, and Itami will report on the activities of the natives by transmitting messages over the radio. A special role will be given to the shooters and a couple of stormtroopers in the squad, they will need to break into the castle and do two things:

1) Capture the path to the dungeon;

2) Hold this path until the main objective is completed.

As a result, a person will be posted at every corner in the corridors of the castle to target and shoot anyone who gets in our way, and it doesn’t matter whether this native is a soldier or an innocent servant, we will kill everyone who gets in our way. Next, the main group: me, Will, Forn and Fred will go down to the dungeon and rescue Sigrun, after which we will quickly leave the castle as quickly as possible and gather in a group to break through the city.

We will carry out the operation at night, mainly due to the presence of night vision devices and the weak activity of the natives at night, that is, nothing will interfere with our operation, and the number of victims will be kept to a minimum. These factors will help us fulfill our task, this is not a statement, I just hope so.

And now the cherished hour has come, we gathered in the barracks, distributing our tasks among ourselves, as well as noting the stages of the operation and their strict time frames. We calculated the required amount of resources to complete this operation, that is, how many kilowatts of electricity our devices will use and how much ammunition we will use.

While the soldiers were checking their weapons, a young dark-haired sorceress remained next to me. Incartia looked at me with fear on her face and saw in our stern faces a hitherto unprecedented determination that we had never shown to anyone before. Maybe we wouldn’t hesitate to break into the dungeon head-on, but we have a limited amount of resources, which we will find somewhere else to use in any case, I’m sure of it.

Having prepared our weapons, I did not forget to say a few words to the soldiers who listened to me attentively. Iron hardness was reflected on their faces, some showed fear, and some had a hint of madness. They knew what we needed to do and didn't mind it at all. They had the same opinion as me, but just in case, I decided to remind them:

"The execution of a citizen of the republic is unacceptable. It is our sacred duty to protect human life from the threats of the cruel universe. We are warriors, we are soldiers of the Republic of Earth, the state that united humanity in a sectoral war and survived, fighting the powerful Empire of the Great Pantora. We are the sword and shield of humanity , and we better remember our true calling among the stars: to protect our home, to protect every person, to serve the state. At some point, we still found our purpose, but what we are now going to do is a kind of declaration of war, so we. we must carry out this operation so that the natives do not guess about the origin of the attackers, that is, so that their suspicions do not fall on us. If they guess who attacked them, then we can forget about peaceful coexistence with the inhabitants of this planet and they will become enemies for us. and then... we’ll never get out of here alive. Is everything clear to you?”

"That's right, sir!"

The platoon shouted in unison.

The fighters with weapons in their hands looked at me sternly and were ready to engage in battle at any moment. They knew perfectly well where everything was going. Tomorrow the execution of Sigrun will take place and we cannot wait that long before luck comes to us, or, more precisely, the moment when the count decides to spare our man. We cannot stand by when our person is in mortal danger; we must take the situation into our own hands and immediately solve the problem.

Instead of our usual camouflages, we put on lighter equipment, taking off the police equipment, leaving only shirts and balaclavas to hide our faces. We also removed the rings of Babylon so that opponents would not guess who we are from our English speech. When we get Sigrun out of the city, we will then quietly return to the barracks as if we had been here all along.

We must do this in order to finally remove suspicions about the attack from us, and then we will leave the city on the second ordered cart on the day when Sigrun’s execution is supposed to take place, that is, on the day when God knows what will happen in the city. And at that moment I was thinking of ordering the operation to begin, when suddenly Incartia tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned around and saw her frightened and pleading look. She knew what was going to happen and it scared her very much.

"Don't do this."

She spoke quietly, but her words meant nothing to us.

"We have a responsibility to protect our man."

"But so many people will die..."

The girl stuttered.

“Maybe... maybe you can wait for the teacher to wake up?”

I shook my head, pursing my lips.

"Even if he wakes up tomorrow morning, we can't risk waiting. Sigrun could be executed at any time, even before the execution itself. We have to get her out right now."

"But these people... they are not to blame for anything."

The young sorceress said pleadingly.

On the one hand, Incartia was right in saying that they were not to blame for anything, and we could have waited for Granid to awaken, but we couldn’t wait that long. He was still too exhausted and would most likely sleep for another whole day before he finally woke up. That’s why we couldn’t rely on Granid now, and moreover, even if he wakes up, we have no guarantee that he will turn the situation in our favor. He may be powerless in this situation and therefore we decided to act independently.

"That's right, it's not their fault,"

I answered sadly and made a stern and indifferent expression on my face.

"But they stand in our way."

Incartia was in shock, her eyes were slightly teary, it seemed that she no longer saw us as people. She now saw us as dangerous monsters who do whatever they want in this world. Without saying anything, she simply left the barracks and headed towards the cart. I don't know what she was thinking, but I think she now had a better opinion of us.

Meanwhile, I put a night vision device on my eyes and a white balaclava on top. We looked very strange in such clothes, especially when the fabric from the sheets hung over it on our backs, which served as cloaks for us. I don’t know who the natives will think we are when they see us, but I really hope they won’t guess about the true origin of the attackers.

"Let's move out."

I gave the order and was one of the first to leave the barracks.

"Yes, sir."

The platoon shouted in unison with a loud stomp and followed me.

Outside the barracks door, a couple of guards were immediately waiting for us, constantly watching us. Having opened the door, a couple of shooters fired tranquilizers at them, hitting them in the necks. Their reaction to the capsules getting into their bodies was late and before they could pull them out they began to fall to the floor from fatigue, and then they passed out completely. When they wake up, they will not remember what happened, and all because of the side effect of the tranquilizer that causes amnesia.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"No activity."

Itami stated on air.

"Accepted."

I answered, continuing to move.

In the corridor, moving as quietly as possible, we scattered in two directions. Two squads headed to the exit from the castle, and I, with my group and another squad, headed to the dungeon. We moved quietly, barely making a rustle as we passed through the corridors with weapons at the ready. It is enough to shoot one person and the noise of the shot will wake up all the people in this castle, and therefore we delayed the time as much as possible until there was general alarm.

Using barely visible light and using night vision devices, we carefully moved forward in silence along dark narrow corridors and soon reached the cross room that connected the rest of the castle and the path to the dungeon. Inside the room there were six guards and one servant girl.

A couple of the guards and the girls spent time talking while the others slept, their slobbering faces pressed to the table. Without the rings of Babylon, we could not understand what they were talking about so cheerfully, but we didn’t need it. Will stepped forward and, aiming at the couple, fired the first shot, and then the second.

The heads of the guard and the girl were instantly torn to pieces, and their blood, like a meat fountain, stained the walls with gray matter and bloody fragments of their skulls. The dead bodies fell on their faces and would never move again. The noise of the shot woke up the remaining two guards from their sleep, who also did not have a better fate.

The first victims.

I thought indifferently as I targeted those who were awakening.

Sieghard and I each fired one shot into the heads of the remaining ones. They didn’t even have time to scream before their heads were torn to pieces, and their bodies fell to the stone floor, still instinctively shaking, a clear sign of recent vital activity. We didn’t look at the dead people for a long time, and I immediately gave the order:

"Forward."

The third squad occupied the cross room, and my squad and I began our descent into the dungeon, where they were already waiting for us. Four more guards stood ready with their blades out, keeping a distance from us. Will and I each fired two single shots directly into the heads and the bodies of the guards fell dead to the floor. We also did not linger with them for long and moved forward to the cell where Sigrun was kept.

"No activity."

Repeated Itami over the connection.

"Accepted."

To my surprise, everything was moving quite smoothly, even from above we had not yet heard the noise of shots, which means that by some miracle we had not yet been spotted. Meanwhile, there were quite a lot of people in the dungeon, so we opened all the doors of the prison cells with a plasma cutter, pretending that we allegedly wanted to free everyone, but our main goal was Sigrun.

The black woman herself was sleeping, shaking from the cold, a bruise was visible on her face, blood was flowing from her nose, dripping from her chin, and traces of dried tears were visible on her cheeks. They clearly managed to make fun of her while we weren’t here, and the realization of this angered me to the point of madness.

Sigrun barely opened her eyes and, seeing us, exclaimed in surprise:

"Boris? What are you...?"

I interrupted her while I was cutting the lock with a metal rod with a plasma cutter, and then opened the door, passing the cutter to Fred, who decided to start freeing the rest of the prisoners.

"There is no time, Sigrun, we are saving you."

"Wait."

Sigrun suddenly interrupted and made me an unexpected proposal, pointing her hand at the next camera.

"Take Ilifreeta with you."

"I said we don't have time."

I repeated nervously, about to take her in my arms, when suddenly she staggered back.

"Sigrun, fuck, we're saving you!"

"We have to get her out of here. She'll help us."

Sigrun insisted.

I didn’t have to think long about whether she and I were wasting time quarreling or we were fulfilling her little condition.

"Fred, take the prisoner in the next cell. That's an order."

"Yes, sir."

The senior medic answered and cut the lock on the door of the next cell with a stream of plasma.

Having lifted the weakened and wounded Sigrun into our arms, as well as Fred, a prisoner from the next cell, we began to return back, going upstairs. Forn, handing over his machine gun to one of the shooters, moved forward outside with Will. The remaining prisoners did not understand what was happening and slowly left their places of detention.

"Contact!"

Suddenly Itami shouted on the air.

"Simultaneous movement in all sectors! The third group has been spotted!"

"Accepted."

Soon shots were heard from above, many single shots, and with them painful screams and, moreover, the natives began to ring the bells, raising the alarm throughout the city.

"Let's hurry."

I ordered the squad.

After leaving the dungeon, I saw a picture of several groups of guards being shot from a cross room. All doorways were literally littered with human corpses torn to pieces. Some of the bodies were still moving and making a lot of painful moans, but we didn’t care that these poor fellows were in agony. If we didn’t have a fighting spirit, we would have stood in a stupor and tried to understand what we had just done, because we were actually killing civilians who were not at all our equals. Maybe there would be someone among us who could clearly enjoy this process, but that person definitely wasn’t me.

The third group, seeing us leave the dungeon, joined us and covered the rear and continued suppressing fire. Forn, walking ahead, stepped over the corpses and went out into the corridor, stopped for a moment, firing forward almost the entire burst from his assault rifle, and then continued moving as if nothing had happened. Soon I stepped over the body shot by Forn and almost froze in place, I tried not to think about it and continued on my way.

The second group occupied the corridors and the exit, and the first group occupied the castle courtyard and the bridge. Having left the main building of the castle, we gathered into a whole platoon and moved forward more closely while the rest shot all the guards, all the people that came around. What we saw were the bloody bodies of a variety of people littering the local parade ground. This place reminded us not of a battlefield, but of a terrorist attack site. The natives did not understand what they were dealing with and therefore tried to fight us in close combat, not realizing that they were in full view of us.

Having crossed the bridge with the whole platoon, a cart drove up to us where we loaded the bodies of Sigrun and another captive. Oddly enough, the cart was driven by a native old man, who looked at us with shock, but with even greater shock at the second prisoner, whom he did not agree to drive, having quarreled with Incartia who was sitting behind him. Without the ring of Babylon, I did not know what he wanted, but just in case I fired a warning shot, after which he abruptly grabbed the reins and galloped out of the city.

The main task was completed, we freed Sigrun, but another task remained. We must get out of here alive, and then quietly return to the city so that the suspicions of the residents of Lakuus do not fall on us. I never thought that I would give such a terrible order:

"We're moving towards the city gates. Kill everything you see."

"Yes, sir!"

The fighters shouted in unison, continuing to fire single shots in different directions, exploding the skulls of everyone who was in sight.

We really behaved like terrorists, shooting every person we saw. Most often, we came across guards who tried to engage us in close combat, but we also came across the most ordinary people who took to the streets and tried to understand what was happening.

I aimed and shot, saving ammunition, and it didn’t matter to me whether I killed people with the first hit or whether my victim fell and groaned in pain. I only did what I myself intended, and that is why I take full responsibility for this. I think for this I face life imprisonment or lifelong service in a penal legion somewhere on Hydra. Now, perhaps, this is not so important.

This would not have happened if the count had been more merciful, but now, instead of suffering the loss of just one life, he lost hundreds more and this exchange was worth absolutely nothing to the count. In any case, we would have returned Sigrun or decided to take such a cruel adventure, but there was no turning back and there was nowhere else to retreat.

Soon we reached the city gates, shot the city guards and left the city, hiding in the forests. Mshkhan even laid a creeping mine in case they immediately began to pursue us and, although I was internally against this since it could kill even more innocent people, we could still avoid persecution.

After some time, we continued to move rapidly towards the meeting place and at the same time put the rings of Babylon on our fingers. We spent more resources than we needed, they reacted, albeit not immediately, but quickly and because of this we delayed. The most difficult thing was for the first group, which fought off a larger number of opponents in a larger area, but the operation was completed.

There was only the last stage left, in which we had to change into our clothes and return to the city unnoticed, which was even more difficult than we imagined. Itami of course discovered an underground passage leading straight into the castle, but the problem was that it essentially led to Count Laroy's personal office, so we would have to knock a hole somewhere to avoid meeting the Count and his family face to face, and this create noise in a new way that we couldn't do anymore.

During planning, we decided to use the remaining charge of the plasma cutter to cut a hole in the wall, after which the power tool would become completely useless.

"Go to Itsqueen. Tomorrow we will go there on another carriage."

I told Incartia and the natives while we all changed clothes, removing the balaclavas from our faces, replacing them with our dark blue helmets, and putting on camouflage police jackets over our T-shirts.

"Boris,"

Suddenly Alza called out to me.

"It's not your fault."

What is she getting at?

I asked a question, tilting my head and immediately received an answer, but from Ripun.

“Do not be afraid of our world, for it feeds on your fear. Mr. Boris, I understand this was difficult for you, but do not blame yourself for what happened. I would do the same for the sake of the people dear to me.”

I don’t agree with him, but I decided not to voice it out loud.

"I understand."

Instead, I answered and the carriage moved towards the royal capital.

It wasn't hard for me, not at all.

I was lying to myself.

Now we had a question around weapons: should we take them with us since the natives could see what we came to the city with and would the count’s suspicions immediately fall on us? If we return to the city with assault rifles, we risk becoming the main suspect in this massacre, and we had no use for that.

Of course, we could make an excuse that we sold these “tools for blacksmithing,” but still, to be on the safe side, we still need some kind of weapon. We will think about this later, but now, with pistols on our belts, we were returning to the city along a narrow and low underground passage, the exit of which was hidden by dense thickets. I addressed the platoon as soon as the adrenaline wore off:

“We come back and... calm down. We pretend that we don’t understand what happened. And yes, here’s what else I want to say, remember, don’t take off the rings... not a word in English. If they heard us and our words, they will immediately understand that who we are. I hope you understand that. Let's move out."