***
--- Diabo’s palace, Noble District ---
Date: May 5th, 2026
“Please spare my life, please,” Diabo said as he begs for his life. “I will tell you anything you want to know! Yes, I was working for the CIA and MI6 as a mole.” He confesses as he is brutally tortured by the Oprichnina in his home. His face is slashed and both his hands have been stabbed.
“Give up already,” Moon states, enjoying seeing a Crown Prince coward like this. “You are such a weak-willed prince. Locking himself with those scrolls without experiencing the world.”
Moon plan has been going as expected. Purging all the traitors and pro-peace nobility from the Empire. This will unify the political elite so all energy can be focused against NATO. Unifty by purging the weak brings victory.
“You might be smart, but you don’t know how the real world works,” Moon states. “All you know how to do is talk, never taking action.” He points to himself. “I keep the Empire together. I am out there daily doing my duty. I don’t fight from a chamber or form your study room. No wonder the CIA and MI6 easily make you their rat. You are too trusting of them to get you the throne that the traitor Molt promised you.” He then punches Diabo in the stomach again.
Diabo coughs up blood, moaning from the pain. Being a Prince, he never experienced physical pain before. “What do you mean?”
For a smart man, Moon finds it fascinating how dumb Diabo can be. For the longest time he was scared of the prince intellect, believing he would have used it to claim the throne. He sees that he was wrong now and how the mighty has fallen.
Moon shakes his head. “NATO will never let you sit on that throne, because they want the traitor Pina. They can use her as a pawn to control the Empire from the shadows. You are just an expendable pawn for both NATO and Pina in the end.” He then laughs.
“How could they?” Diabo screams. “They promised me the throne if I helped. My brother will drive this Empire to the ground and I only can save it. They said they agreed with me.”
“Well, there is one way for you to escape the fate of meeting Hardy in a gruesome manner,” Moon explains. “Give me the location of both CIA and MI6 so we can purge the bastards. I will give you one more chance to tell me, lest you meet the same fate as your traitorous father.”
Diabo begins to try from the pain. “Ok, I will tell you!” He takes a breath. “The CIA and MI6 are holding up in a warehouse in Akusho. They took it from the Crime Lords and both sides are working together there, using the people to hide themselves.”
Before the Raid of Sadera, CIA helped Marines occupy Crime Lord warehouses as a staging area.
“Tsk. Of course those criminal bastards would betray the crown. They never had loyalty to the crown. No matter, I will make sure their corpses hang from the battlements of Sadera,” Moon states.
“You will lead us to them!!” Moon looks at Diabo.
“If I do this, will you spare my life?” Diabo states.
“Normally yes, but there is an additional price,” Moon cackles as he draws his sword, slicing off Diablo’s left hand.
“That was for Faro!” Moon states as he looks at the corpse of his loyal spy fairy who has his spine broken by Diabo earlier.
--- Sadera, Akusho District ---
“So, this is the nest of their spying operation,” Moon said as he looks at the warehouse with a huge contingent of Oprichnina and Legionnaires.
“Yes, I swear this is their main base of operation,” Diabo follows the Oprichnina as he holds a bandage where his hand used to be.
Moon stops, placing his hands on his hips. “Purge the place, but don’t kill them all. I need some of them to be alive for interrogation.”
The Oprichnina, Royal Guard, and the Legionnaires storm through the streets of the Akusho. Everyone goes to the door of the warehouse and rush in. However, they find nothing, except several strange barrels with some gizmos in them. As they reach the top floor, they also find nothing except the words “Welcome to Hell” written in Saderan on the wall.
As the Oprichnina and Legionnaires are still scrambling around the warehouse, Moon looks at his daughter.
“What are you goanna do with him daddy?” Nytcha points at Diabo.
Moon looks at his thirteen-year-old daughter. He has been raising his two children to one day replace him as leader of the Oprichnina. While he is strong and has become a brute, his daughter has become clever. She is learning how to beta her opponents before they even know they are in a fight. Finding and destroying threats before they become problems.
Nytcha also has the biggest of hearts within the Moon House. While her brother Skotadi is more to the point and would kill his enemies. She would be merciful and slowly kill her enemies in a slow and painful death, forcing them to beg for death to come quicker.
While Moon's daughter is with him, he has his son with Zorzal, helping with a special surprise. His son was requested by Zorzal himself, a great honor.
“You will have a chance to practice your skills this time, my daughter,” Moon replied.
“What do you mean?” Diabo asked.
“I am sorry to say this but I cannot trust you anymore. You are a traitor to the Emperor, and, willing to cooperate or not, you will have to be made an example,” Moon exclaims. “I hope you use your intellect in the underworld this time.”
“Yay! Can I hang his head on the pole after torturing him?” Nytcha sadistically smiles.
“Of course, sweetie,” Moon replied with a smile. He turns, expecting a terrified face from Diabo. However, he sees that Diabo is smiling.
“You are right, Preator Moon, I overthink everything and that led me into this position. However, you might want to listen to your own words. You and your father can go to meet Hardy together!” Diabo then dashes into the distance and ducks around a corner.
Before Moon can give the order to run him down, a massive explosion comes from the inside from the warehouse, killing all the Orpichnina and Legionaries inside as well as killing and maiming many who are outside.
Realizing what was about to happen Moon grabs his daughter and holds her tight as the explosion happens. He feels the intense heat from the explosion as he falls to the ground. “My face!”
Suddenly, multiple gunshots come from several vantage points on the rooftops of the surrounding houses, shooting at Moon’s contingent of surviving troops and Oprichnina, causing them to retreat, dragging both Moon and his daughter out of Akusho.
“Come on, your highness! Let's get you out of here. What the hell happened to your hand?”, Gracia asks as he reaches Diabo.
“I sacrificed one of my limbs for this cause you and my sister believe so much. You better get me to visit Earth this time. You all owe me!” Diabo shouts as he is carried away by the CIA team.
“Daddy, are you ok?” Nytcha asked, panicking.
Moon feels the pain on his face. He places his hand over it and looks at Diabo and the CIA agents take him away. “Damnit, damn you to the deepest pits!”
Now Moon sees how the agents of Earth have been moving around. The CIA agents open this hidden door in the ground, looking just like any other floor stone. The agents and Diabo go inside.
All around the Oprichnina, arson quickly causes the northern part of Akusho to be engulfed in flames, which is bright enough to light up the whole of Sadera in the moonless night.
--- 2 hours later ---
Staff Sergeant Burke of the US Marines is engaging Imperial forces within Sadera.
The CIA and MI6 agents within the city had their cover blown and triggered the panic button. US and Royal Marines occupied Crime Lord warehouses and were outside the city undercover, waiting for the call.
Up ahead, a building exploded. When Burke first arrived through a secret tunnel the Crime Lords used to traffic drugs and people, they told him some buildings were rigged with explosives, and others had oil and kerosene to help spread the flames. Total scorched Earth tactics.
Right now, his squad is securing an intersection. Everyone is engaging the Royal Guard, Sadera Knights, and the Imperial Army defenders. The only things preventing the Saderan forces from overrunning their position are the flames and explosions.
"Jesus, this place is massive," Corporal Sanders points out.
Burke looks around. That was the first thing he noticed, how massive Sadera is. He sees why the brass has been hesitant in taking the city. The battle would be quick; however, the occupation could require sixty to one hundred thousand soldiers.
Burke always wondered why the brass did not just take Sadera and get it over with. Being here in person, he sees the problem with an outright invasion.
He remembers watching the Iraq War while growing up. The Army struggled at first to maintain stability and peace in Iraq's capital Baghdad. The Army said they needed at least one hundred thousand just to keep order.
While bringing order to Baghdad was accomplished, it was more challenging than it needed to be. Occupying Sadera would require at least half of NATO forces and logistics to hold it.
"Stay focused," Burke ordered.
After killing a swordsman, he moves to the other side of the intersection to his radioman.
"Report."
"The CIA said they are forty-five percent done with the evacuation Sarge. Captain Miller is preparing the next defensive line."
Burke looks around. He sees a three-deep line formation of Legionaries marching towards them, around thirty-five soldiers. He directs two of his riflemen and his gunner towards them, all armed with the Marine’s M27 rifle. The Marines quickly take out a quarter of the Legionaries before they break ranks and take cover.
Burke watched five swordsmen go into a nearby building to try and outflank the Marines. However, the building exploded from one of the CIA’s traps before he even got to inform his troops. This forced many of the Legionaries to scatter, allowing the Marines to pick them off.
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"Staff Sergeant! CIA says to pull back."
"Alright, Marines, disperse and regroup at the rear checkpoint."
After organizing the Marines, they rush through the streets. Guiding them are three Crime Lord agents. While Burke does not trust them, he needs their guidance, being that the city is so compact, and he is struggling to remember the map. He could easily get lost here, and that is the last thing he wants to do.
As they move, something comes out of the burning building from the right. Whatever it is slices a Marine and a Crime Lord agent in half.
Burke stops, staring at the boy. He heard the stories and knew who he was.Taylin, the Apostle of Idos. An Apostle is every soldier's worst nightmare because there are so few solutions in effectively incapacitating, stalling, and killing one. The best options are heavy ordinance and the support of allied Apostles, but an Infantryman is mostly helpless when facing one unless he has anti-tank weapons, even though the chance is slim to actually make a shot.
"Fire, shoot it!" Burke orders. As his men engage, he grabs his radio. "Contact Apostle. Need back up!"
"I wish Rory was here!" one soldier complained.
---
After getting the call from one of the US Marine units about Taylin, Captain Albert Nelson and his SAS team rush to that location.
MI6 has been tracking the Apostles Taylin and Jasis, both living at Sadera. Just in case Inferno Protocol was declared the SAS was on standby to deal with the Apostles.
According to reports, Vanguard-7 has had to deal with Apostles, both friendly and hostile. That knowledge has been spread out to the rest of the Special Forces community
While there are still no good solutions to an Apostle for the Infantry, there are solutions. For example, .45 caliber explosive and incendiary bullets. The explosives cause massive amounts of damage and while incendiary bullets are less effective, they still burn the Apostle, stunning them as they wail in pain. The ideal caliber is the .45 caliber however most NATO troops, even special forces, use the 9mm. Albert hopes that will be enough.
A frag twelve explosive shotgun shells have shown to be potentially highly effective against Apostles as it can blow off limbs easily, effectively incapacitating them, but the problem is the fast speed of the Apostles make it difficult to actually aim and accurately shoot the shells at them.
All those methods are designed to maximize damage, hoping to remove limbs off the Apostle. All that requires brute force and lots of luck.
Sharpe and DARPA discovered an interesting solution, using a M26 taser. He used it against Giselle during the Mount Tube Skirmish(1). While the taser did no damage against Giselle, it did immobilize her many times.
With that knowledge, DARPA invented a taser rifle, the XM77(2). It fires a more powerful taser so assuming the same logic that went against Giselle, the new rifle should immobilize Taylin more effectively.
What is bothering Albert is that this is unproven technology and that the rifle has a cord with the taser. That puts his men at risk and creates a short effective range. The only time this was tested was with Rory, giving recommendations. But tests are not combat.
Albert stops and fires his C8SFW rifle, killing a Royal Guard.
Around the corner Albert hears a battle. Weapons fire and yelling, it’s the Americans.
Once Albert gets around the corner, he sees the carnage. Two US and one Royal Marine dead and three Crime Lord agent’s dead. Five more wounded, with massive cuts or dismembered limbs.
Taylin stops his foot on a Marine’s back and lifts his ax to chop off the Marine’s head. His whole body is covered in blood. Blood pours from bullet holes all over his body.
Two newly arrived Royal Marines stop and fire at Taylin, trying to stop him.
To Albert's horror, he watches as the 5.56 rounds hit Taylin and he does not flinch. Watching as all his wounds quickly heal. He cannot believe that this is what Sharpe and the other Rangers have been dealing with.
Albert then orders his SAS into position. He sets up his two men with the XM77 to both sides of the street, hiding. He wants to lure Taylin to his team to get the boy closer to the tasers and to give the Marines a chance to fall back.
The SAS line up and all open fire at Taylin. He fires his Glock 17, using explosive rounds.
The hail of bullets got Taylin's attention. He swung his half broken Battle Ax(3) and blocked most of the bullets.
An explosive round hits Taylin's gut and explodes. He ignores the small hole in his side and leaps towards them.
Once Taylin lands, he swings his ax, cutting a SAS in the chest. The others back away.
“Fire!” Albert orders.
The two SAS fire their XM77. Both sets of wires are attached to Taylin confusion. The Apostle lets out a loud scream and falls to his knees. His hair sticks up from the amount of electricity that is moving through his body.
“Do it again.”
They trigger another taser attack on Taylin, making him scream again.
Albert, seeing that Taylin is immobilized he points to Julian with the 12 gauge, “Finish this.”
Albert then looks to the Marines. All three groups gather the wounded and dead and start rushing away. They are heading to the hidden extraction tunnel.
Adrian aims his shotgun at Taylin.
“I cannot believe that Sharpe's plan worked,” Albert said.
“Sharpe!” Taylin yells. He swings his ax up, cutting the shotgun in half.
“Shock him again!”
Taylin overcomes a third tease attack and grabs the wires. He rips them off and tosses a set at one of the SAS, tasing him.
Albert watched as Taylin pulled on the other wires, pulling that SAS soldier towards him.
Taylin grabs the soldier and tosses into the other soldiers.
After Taylin easily defeats the SAS, he looks directly at Albert. He quickly rushes up and grabs Albert, ramming him into a wall.
“Where is he!” Taylin yells.
Alert feels lots of pain from being rammed into the wall. “What?”
“Where is he?” Taylin yells again. “Where is Sharpe?”
Albert closely looks at Taylin, studying him. What he noticed shocked him. This is not just a fight, this is personal. Taylin despises Sharpe.
Albert has done many missions with Sharpe in South-East Asia, so he somewhat understands Taylin’s emotions, but this seems like something more. He knows Taylin is fighting for the Empire on principle. Unlike most of the Empire and the League who are fighting to maintain their power, Taylin is fighting for what he believes in.
Albert also knows that Taylin and Rory had a romantic relationship and a long history together. Now that Rory picked Sharpe to be loyal and follow to a fault, he seems to be angry about that. He wonders if Taylin is truly opposed to NATO’s ways or if he is jealous that Rory loves Sharpe and follows a mortal.
“I have no idea,” Albert replied. “Why would they tell me that?”
“Your kind works together all the time,” Taylin replied. “Earth Elite warriors. You must know where he is.”
Albert sees some of his soldiers aim their rifles at Taylin back. He waves them off knowing that bullets will not work.
“I said I have no idea,” Albert replied.
“I don’t believe you,” Taylin replied. He then aims his ax towards a SAS, threatening them to back off or he will kill their leader. “Why are you people even down here? You are not here just to save some whores? Criminals? I doubt you people would waste lives to save whores and criminals. If they were your own yes, but not the scoundrels in this place.”
Albert blinks, sensing that Taylin knows what is happening.
Taylin eyes widen and looks to the palace. “I should have known.”
Albert agrees. Sharpe is leading a raid against the palace. Taylin was right, part of the goal of this evacuation was to lure as many forces as possible away from the Royal District, especially the Apostles. It is the best chance to rescue the pro-peace faction.
Seeing that Taylin is distracted, Albert reaches into his pocket and puts on brass knuckles. He hits Taylin as hard as he can, tearing parts of Taylin skin. He then pushes Taylin away. “Open fire!”
Albert gets out of the way and his men fire at Taylin.
Taylin ignores the gunfire and jumps onto a roof. He then starts running the rooftops, heading back to the palace.
--- Somewhere in Akusho ---
James walks past everyone as they flee. He stops and watches his traps go off. They are having the desired effect, slowing down the Imperial Army, he is just surprised how quickly they mobilized. He knows the Inferno Protocol will not last forever.
The new problem is the city wall. James noticed the enlarged trebuchet along the wall. Enlarged trebuchet being twice as big as the historical Earth version. The Earth versions were designed to be used by Humans however on Falmart, larger and stronger races can operate them like trolls, giants, and the humanoid Minotaurs.
The defenders have rotated them to face inside the city and are now firing at them with boulders and firepots. He wonders how many people from Akusho will survive.
James sees the thugs of the Gonzori Family. All four families have become assistants for the CIA. “What is the status of all the Crime Lords?”
“They have safely evacuated with all their necessary assets in Akusho through their private smuggling tunnels,” the thug said. “My lord and the others are currently torching their mansions and smashing the supporting beams to collapse it. Their loved ones have boarded the carriages to go safely to the designated locations. We are still evacuating our men who just finished torching some of the buildings in the far east of the district.”
“As long as you keep yourself useful,” James replied. “Just get as many of your people as possible out.”
Normally James would not put this much effort into evacuating a population or even assets like the Crime Lords. Standard protocol states to abandon them however, they all proved to be valuable assets, both current and post war.
The Crime Lords have a network of spies, working the black market of the Falmart economy. They have been spreading trackers to find supply routes, key warehouses and places of manufacturing, contacts with other states and tribes outside NATO range.
The CIA did a study and concluded that it will take at least a decade for them to properly map out Falmart and discover every faction, and that’s just one of the continents of Uros. Mapping the continent by satellite is one thing, filling in the details is another. The CIA only began making a presence in Telta and Rondel because of their alliance with the Crime Lords by using backdoor politics. They still need the Crime Lords to help spread the CIA’s influence to the farther regions of Falmart, and hopefully beyond.
As more people pass James, heading to the tunnel he sees Sean helping wounded Marines.
“Apostle?”
“Taylin,” Sean replied. “They are right behind us.”
“Where is he?”
“He left for the palace, he knows about the other operation,” Captain Albert of the SAS said. There was a pause because of a nearby explosion. “The Army is coming up right behind us. We need to provide a little more time to give some breathing space. Last thing we want is them following close behind us.”
Five kilometers outside the city is a warehouse acting as a staging ground. V-22s Ospreys and military trucks are heading there to pick everyone up. All the civilians who helped the CIA in Akusho will be sent to Alnus, Italica, and Maltris while the Crime Lords will be heading to a different location so they can continue their illegal activities, as long they don’t cross the line of the CIA. It is stated that the Crime Lords are interested in mimicking the types of frontal legit businesses the mafias back on Earth are doing; beside their usual activities of prostitution, drug dealings; protection racket, and smuggling; like a casino; spas, and hotels, as well as some new forms of illegal businesses like underground fight clubs or bookmakers.
“Air support will knock out the trebuchets on the wall,” James orders. “We hold the line here and then the AC-130 levels the area. We will only need to wait ten minutes and then we can head out.”
“Why doesn't your Air Force just destroy them from above, like last time?” the thug asked. “We are losing many people in this pointless battle.”
“Not how it works,” Albert replied.
“As I said before the Empire employs jamming towers here, this is the capital after all,” James added, annoyed by the question. “If our gunship starts attacking without clear direction, they will hit us. They can use their sights to hit targets on the wall and away from the battle, but they won’t risk killing us without a direct link with us.”
“I just don’t understand,” the thug replied. “These wave things in the air but whatever.”
James orders Tyson and the Crime Lords rear guards to form up behind them to assist in the defense. Albert takes his men and the Marines and forms them into groups. He flips the safety off on his Knight's Armament Company 6×35mm PDW and rushes to one of the defensive lines.
Once there, the Imperial Army and Royal Guards have reached the new line. Captain Miller of the US Marines is there, maintaining the line.
“What is going on Captain?”
“We are going to run out of ammo at this rate,” Miller said. “The Royal Marines are to our right and my Marines here and to the left intersection. Got your criminals mixed with groups but they are not that useful.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are criminals, they might be good at what they do but they cannot go toe-to-toe against professional legionaries. They are honestly getting in the way.”
James looks to the battle and sees one Legionnaire cut down two Crime Lords swordsmen with ease. He sees what Miller is saying, they do not have armor or the quality in training for a straight up fight. They are just untrained street thugs using purely brute force to fight.
James kills the Legionnaire, and unlike the Crime Lords swords and daggers, his FMJ rounds easily went through the enemy armor.
Hearing another explosion from behind, James looks back. He sees a fireball hitt close to the tunnel exit. The Empire must be trying to destroy the exit.
On the wall, a 105mm howitzer round destroys one of the trebuchets. While James prefers having the A-10 because seeing them helps boost his confidence in a tight spot, he knows the AC-130 will do fine. While the gunship can make the round trip between Sadera and Alnus, the A-10s and most NATO aircraft cannot without air refueling and those logistical units are needed for the V-22s carrying out the evacuation.
Hearing someone yell, James looks back and sees a humanoid Minotaur charging down the street. They are smaller and technically smarter than their larger and dumber monster cousins, they have a quick temper and ego complex. He heard stories of them ramming into soldiers’ lines and causing a ruckus.
The Minotaur ignores everyone and rams into a building wall. He comes out the other side, behind everyone. Albert’s team quickly kills the beast and plugs up the new opening.
“They are trying to create an opening to flank us,” Miller said. “This isn’t sustainable.”
“Part of our job is to be a distraction Captain. We just need a few more minutes,” James replied.
“If we stay any longer, they will flank us,” Miller responded. “We are done. Marines, begin falling back.”
Seeing the Marines regrouping and slowing heading to the exit, he rallies his agents.
While he was not lying about the distraction, he was not fully telling the truth. Sean and two MI6 agents were on a secret mission while everyone was distracted. A package that the CIA deemed important. Because of the jamming towers, radio transmissions are horrible. While not bad at close range, they become jarring or unbearable at times.
Getting back to the tunnel, the Marines and the remaining Crime Lord agents begin dropping down into the manhole.
James stops and provides cover, killing any Imperial that approaches.
James sees his agents come out of a building and rush to their position. On one of the MI6 agents is holding a large box on his back. “Please tell me you got it,” James pleads.
“We got it boss,” Sean replied.
“Good. Let's get out of here.”