“As casualties continue to mount, a state of emergency has been declared across the Corporate Alliance as well as the Empire with the Selfian administration blaming the terrorist organization known as the High Table for this devastating attack. According to the General Surgeon of the Empire, this attack is a biological attack but is in no way infectious or transmissible. However, civilians are being urged to shelter in place while government officials and security forces restore order. In other news, Imperial academy students have been deployed to assist in security efforts.”- Korriban News.
*****
“Hold the line! The fate of the empire depends on you!” Sergeant James Conrad barked, the newly promoted NCO taking cover behind a tree from Selfian soldiers blasting his surroundings into craters with artillery. “Enemy MECHFrames! Get AT now! Where the hell is our armor!?”
A soldier landed beside Conrad, the man bleeding profusely with Conrad immediately moving to render aid as he recognized the man to be a runner.
“Lieutenant Morrison and the fifth armor are being struck by awakened lightning! We're cut off!” the soldier reported with Conrad grinding his teeth as he took gauze from his pouch to pack the wound.
“Okay! Hold this in place, we're gonna get you to a healer!” Conrad ordered, reflecting on the choices that led him to being bombed in a trench. “Fucking Selfians!”
Achmad and Ferdinand were dead, so too was Hoffman. In fact, everyone that had been in his original platoon was gone with Conrad only surviving thanks to an injury that got him a ticket on the last medivac out of Windermere.
Healed by an awakened and sent back out with a medal in tow, Conrad was now under orders to slow the enemy advance at all cost.
Yet hiding behind the debris of several trees and covered in sweat, dirt, and blood, Conrad could only curse at the futility of his actions.
“Damn it…” Conrad huffed, looking down at the medal pinned to his chest. He took it off, eyeing the once pristine metal emblem now covered in dirt before he tossed it aside.
Should he surrender? Defect? No, it was too late for that now, not to mention it would dishonor Hoffman's valiant stand and memory. No, he had to see this through, bleed as many of the Selfian bastards he could before he died. This is what it meant to be a Roland soldier. This is what it meant to fight for the future.
Conrad clenched his teeth, peeking from cover to gawk at the blue armored man standing atop a pure black MECHFrame.
“Ah, aren't I just lucky!” Conrad hissed, identifying the man as the Selfian King.
A blossoming flame of rage welled up within, the man who murdered the only good officer he'd ever had the honor of serving was in front of him, ten meters, practically spitting distance on the battlefield!
Conrad turned to his left, preparing to give orders before realizing why the Selfian's had stopped shooting in his direction.
Everyone was dead, by some stroke of luck only he and he alone was alive. He turned his the right, checking the man beside him who's head hung limp with his hands still on his bloodied gauze.
Conrad's eyes pulse, his mind going blank as rage propelled his next actions.
He reached over, grabbing a bundle of anti-tank grenades off a soldier before rising from his cover and racing towards the man in blue.
“DIE SELFIAN DOG! FOR KING AND COUNTRY!!!” Conrad roared, pulling the pins of his grenades and throwing himself at the man who turned and-
***
Jack lifted his gun blade, pulling the trigger and blasting the charging Roland soldier back who exploded into a red mist from the grenades he held in his hand.
“Should have just stayed hidden…” Jack muttered before ordering the tanks, MECHFrames, and armored soldiers under his command to advance through the shrubbery of the densely packed forest to move upon the outskirts of the Roland capital. “Area clear, anti-armor guns and partisans are down, feel free to advance admiral.”
Above Jack, the imperial navy cast a shadow on the dank forest, bloating out the sky with the might Selfia had brought to finish off her brother once and for all.
“Jack,” Selfia said from the bridge of her flagship, the Middle Finger, “Our forces are in position, demonspawn interception teams are in place and the blockade is complete. Remember Jack, we need you to conserve your strength. Ivan reports that the Black King is still within the capital citadel with my brother, so we're going to go in first. Remember, we want to trap him here so they can’t escape.”
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“Yeah, got it,” Jack said, taking the back seat as he watched airships above begin engaging the Roland aircraft in the distance.
“Tangerine, are you okay?” Jack asked as he checked the black rochi harness he wore.
The MECHFrame pilot took a moment before responding, “I prefer you address me as my callsign, sir.”
“Damocles, how are you doing in there?” Jack said as he scanned the fog of war that lay stretched out before him. It was unnatural, man-made smoke of ash, soot, cordite, and gunpowder that created a grey bleakness that stretched out to near infinity.
“I'm green, sir,” Tangerine replied, the MECHFrame pilot clearly unhappy being relegated to being Jack's bodyguard.
“I'm not asking if you're ready, I'm asking how you are,” Jack prodded only to be met with silence despite the fact that the pilot was talking to his AI.
Despite working together at Hoshido and in the Theocracy, the relationship was still strained. Jack had made several attempts at reaching out, yet every time it was met with scorn with Tangerine’s hatred and angst of a typical teen.
A teen that was on the warfront. At the very least, there were no other Kindersoldats, almost all of the youth troops had been disbanded, forced instead to attend schools and academies thanks to Selfia's new initiative.
Still, Tangerine wanted to be here, volunteered in fact, so Jack would give the kid what he wanted so he could at least watch over him.
Sara, how's the battle going?
“Jin is leading the charge, without House Light’s awakened supporting them, the Roland army seems to have few awakened remaining,” Sahaqiel reported. “Both sides are taking lots of casualties but we have the numbers.”
Jack frowned, rubbing his chest, he didn’t like sending so many to their deaths, especially if he could do something about it, but he needed to conserve his strength, especially if he was going to fight the Black King.
“This waiting is killing me,” Jack muttered, clenching his jaw as detonation after detonation rang out, the fighting in the distance escalating as imperial armor traded blows with imperial armor. Jack had to begin manipulating the mana in the air to drown out the constant roar of cannons and screams of pain and death.
Jack yawned, turning his gaze upwards to the air carrier above, the vessel Selfia watched the battlefield from.
Suddenly an influx of mana, Jack’s head snapping to the battlefield where a conflux of red and black energy clashed.
“Selfia, what's going on over there?” Jack asked into his comlink.
“The knight of Two and Six have taken to the field,” Selfia said, the annoyance in her voice evident.
“House Lamperouge?” Jack said, recalling the list of Imperial knights that for the most part had remained neutral during the war.
That’s Ruby’s family… Jack said to himself, feeling his knight stir inside.
“Yeah, I’m unsure why they’re fighting for the losing side but I can feel something annoying about to happen,” Selfia said.
“Can Jin handle them?” Jack asked. While his cousin was also a Knight of the Round, he was only ranked eleven, meaning the two he was fighting were ahead of him.
“Violet is with him and so is M’ishka.”
Ruby stirred again, this time more violently as her desire to protect poured into Jack’s consciousness.
“M’ishka?” Jack blinked, taken aback that the heterochromatic man was on the field, “Is he okay?”
“Yes, he was a bit haggard, but it seems whatever effects the red eyes only has a diminished effect on those with other bloodline eyes,” Selfia said before barking orders to some unseen officer.
“I see,” Jack said, biting his inner cheek, “I’m sending Ruby out to assist.”
“I rather you didn’t-”
“Too late,” Jack shot back as the armored shadow known as Ruby took off, “I can spare the mana. Besides, I’m tired of waiting.”
Jack began to float, rising into the air to survey the battlefield. Casting an anti-army skill would cost too much from him at this juncture, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t help out.
Spreading his wings, the silver feathers began to combine together, shifting to form two rods of parallel tightened metal attached to the end of his gunblade.
“Jack, what are you doing? You’re supposed to be conserving your strength!” Selifa yelled over Jack’s comlink as his vision flickered, targeting the mana source in the distance.
“I am,” Jack replied, imbuing his feathers with lightning as sparks began to dance between the two rods of silver feathers. One positive, one negative.
With his sight and senses, Jack could make out Jin and his party clashing against a group of awakened while mechframes from both parties fought.
“Like hell you are! My sensors are detecting a fuck ton of mana!”
“Huh, is that you consider a fuck ton?” Jack replied as a spearhead shaped by his extra feathers touched the two poles.
What happened next was a boom, Jack’s shoulder dislocating from the impromptu rail canonn blasting a feather at an awakened. A credit to her strength and reflex, the awakened woman threw up a purple barrier, attempting to block the projectile that pierced through and impaled her into the earth.
“W..what?!” Her voice could be heard to Jack’s ears, her surprise and shock evident with the single word.
“Explode,” Jack ordered, the feather spearhead unraveling to detonate inside the purple-eyed woman who could only gasp before she was turned into chunks of viscera.
And just like that, one of the strongest knights in the empire had been killed.
The battle ceased between the Roland Guard and the Selfian soldiers, both sides turning to Jack whose injuries were already healed.
Hovering there, Jack’s features were shadowed by the sun, his shadowing casting the visage of a black-winged beast upon the earth.
“HEAR ME MICHEAL! COME OUT YOU BASTARD!” Jack shouted, his voice carried by the winds across the battlefield to reach the ears of the smiling man in a white suit sipping on tea upon the balcony overlooking the war.
“Ah, seems like the little bird has finally spread his wings,” Micheal grinned, his golden eyes shifting with joy towards the man in the distance.