“CFN forces have halted their offensive. In a stunningly surprising move, both President Sullivan Rimpler of the Federal Republic of Orland and Chancellor Pyotr Kerensky have condemned the coup plotters in the Latian Kingdom. CFN leadership is now also rumored to be engaged in ‘sensitive’ talks with the Orlish Royalist Government. These erratic policy shifts however remain confusing to outside observers, with experts warning that the Latian Coup ‘may be more than just a coup’.”

- Geopol Press

+++

Latia

Corinthia City

5th MEU

C/3-1 Marine Regiment

Moritz coughed and coughed as he tried to pick himself up. The world around him was on fire, and he could barely move. He tried to pick up his radio, but there was only an unrecognizable buzz on it.

My men! He panicked. My men!

He coughed as he tried to pick himself up. He looked at his left leg, however, as pain assaulted it. There were still small holes that smoked. And he could only wince and shout in pain. When he looked to his side, he saw one of his men, his body nothing but a bleeding, mangled corpse.

Three Latian tanks on the road too—all of them burning wrecks. Gunfire continued to pour in from the rooftops of the high-rise buildings, straight at whatever remaining resistance was left below.

“We need…” He tried to speak to his radio. “Damn it!”

It didn’t work anymore. He tried to painfully pull himself into a sitting position near the rubble, as he looked around. The HMLVs used by his squad on the road were now nothing but a bullet-ridden wreck. He knew this would happen. He warned them. He knew that the officers who sent them here knew this would happen.

And it became truly clear to him. He was powerless. He was utterly powerless. He was sent here to die, along with his mates. And he couldn’t change it.

He bitterly bit his teeth and prepared to take his pistol.

If I’m just going to die here. He looked up at the skies. Then so be it.

But suddenly—someone grabbed him. He resisted for a second before he was hit with a powerful cooling sensation. He looked back at who was dragging him out. It was a woman. She wore civilian clothing, but she had a kevlar body armor above her pink colored dress shirt. More importantly, she was armed with a gun.

“Don’t worry,” she shouted at him. “I’m getting you to safety!”

She dragged him straight into one of the intact convenience stores that was left standing. Then, he was placed into the side of the wall, as she stood back up. Unable to move his legs, he tried to grab and cling to her to let him stand.

“My men are still there!” He said, trying to shake her. Almost as if he was asking her to help his men. “Please! I can’t leave them! Damn it, let me go back! Fix my legs, anything! And who are you even?”

“I’m from the RIU,” she explained. She frowned, then kneeled to his level. “I don’t have much mana left, but alright…I can’t help you about your men though…”

She then checked his left leg. Cutting through his broken pants, she revealed a grizzly sight. Shrapnel wounds everywhere. Bleeding. And bleeding pretty badly. Her halo began glowing harder, as she plucked her wand and aimed it at his injuries.

“This is a new spell,” she warned. “It’s gonna be painful, but I need you to hold tight.”

Moritz gritted his teeth, as suddenly dozens of sharp metal shot out of his wounds. He let off a guttural scream, as all of the wounds on his leg worsened. The bleeding became even more pronounced, and the woman almost panicked for a second, before she calmed down and levitated the shards of metal to the side.

The glow on her wand changed from a light grey metallic color, into that of a soft, golden color as she chanted a different spell. Immediately, the bleeding started to cool off, and his veins and arteries stitched back together. Meanwhile, the holes in his wounds scabbed quickly and closed off.

By the time she was done, it was almost as if his wounds were now at its final stage of healing.

“Okay…” she breathed out tensely. “I can’t expend more energy on your wounds. Sorry.”

He tried to move his legs. Immediately, Moritz decided to try to stand up.

“I need to get to my men—”

“No! Stay there,” she pushed him back down. “They’re dead! Okay? Dead! Now just stay there. I’m just waiting for the rest of my team, then we’ll move out.”

She took her gun and went near the store’s glass door to look at the firefight outside. An explosion made her duck for a second. Moritz on the other hand stood up slightly to look outside through the glass windows. Nothing was left of their contingent. He returned to his sitting position, as he gave up. It was too dangerous outside, and no one was left.

He picked up a box of cigarettes and lit it up.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“So what’s your name?” Moritz asked. The woman sighed and looked away from the fighting.

“Florena Meyer,” she replied. “Agent Florena Meyer.”

“What’s that rose patch?” Moritz asked, eyeing the small patch on her holster. “I hadn’t worked with you RIU girls yet. I’ve seen NID guys or AFI guys. Royal Guard folks too. But not your kind.”

She just laughed.

“That’s just my team’s insignia,” the woman named Florena said.

“You’re not even twenty, aren’t you?”

“No. I’m new to this war,” she said. “But I’m serving the Queen’s vision now. That’s all that matters.”

“Idealists,” Moritz scoffed. “You probably believe all this crap means anything. Look at this shit. We're both so dead in this nightmare. It’s over.”

“Not yet,” she said. “The mission goes on. We'll find out if it’s true or not. I just need to wait. My friends should be close.”

“Mission?”

“Classified,” she sighed. “But I suppose you’re in on it now that you’re stuck here deep inside enemy lines. Just don’t ask too many questions.”

+++

West Orland

Duchy of Rimwurz

November Palace

“You either stop this war, or the world will burn.”

Marie played the encrypted, unrecognizable voice once more. The second time only made it even more chilling for Amelie.

“This has to be bullcrap,” William shouted. “They just want us to get the fuck out of Corinthia so they blackmail us with this bullshit. There’s no way they have on their hands, a damned nuclear bomb!”

“But there’s a possibility that they stole it from the CFN,” Amelie reasoned. “They called us. It’s the only possible reason. They know they lost a bomb, and now they’re being threatened with this too. That must be why they concluded that there are WMDs in the city.”

“So are we going to just sit right now?” Nia asked. “I think we should tell the OHC about this right now. And…stop sending troops to Corinthia. Maybe even commence civilian evacuations.

“Bad idea,” Marie said, as she played another audio file that was sent to them.

“None gets out of the city. A wink of retreat without meeting our demands, and consequences shall follow.”

The playback ended, and Marie just sighed.

“I’m going to be honest, negotiating with terrorists holding a nuclear bomb isn’t my expertise. Realistically, with these threats in mind, we have to…try our best to follow their words. We can’t evacuate or retreat the troops in the city yet.”

“I’m still going to phone General Albrecht to cancel any further deployments, air or land,” Amelie grimaced. “Goddess…my marines down there. I can’t just leave them in that city. They’re knee-deep in the fighting.”

“General Albrecht isn’t going to stop redeployments for no reason,” William said. “He’ll need to have a very good reason as to why he would have to reverse your previous order of taking the Prime Minister off from Kentro Palace quickly. And if we tell him that we have to do it because of nukes, he’ll order an evacuation immediately.”

“Marie, do we have any secure communication lines with these terrorists?” Amelie asked, unease growing in her voice.

“Rose Team hasn’t reported for eighteen minutes already,” Marie said. “Lotus Team is still trying to either find the bomb or make proper contact with their leadership. These files they sent to us are one-way encrypted files.”

A call distracted William. He immediately picked up his phone. For a few seconds, the room was silent as he talked to someone on the other line. When he placed it back in his pocket, he just frowned.

“Shit, they sent the same thing to us,” William said. “To the OPM. Audio files too.”

Amelie turned even more pale. She turned back to Marie.

“Marie, I need you to order your teams to establish communications with them faster,” Amelie said. “If I have to, I will talk to them personally. I need to calm this down. There’s too many people’s lives at stake.”

“We’re already working on tracing back where the file came from,” William reported. “But that might take a few hours more.”

“And the same is true for my teams,” Marie said. “Even with magic, both Rose Team and Lotus Team have limitations. Their morale must also be plummeting. They now have the task not just to find the nuclear bomb, but also to either communicate with the terrorists or defuse it. They’re in a very bad and stressful spot.”

“If we send in a bomb disposal team from the OAF, it might take a few hours from our Levantine bases,” William said. “We have to act now, see which avenues we can take. Negotiate, defuse, or a rapid evacuation. I imagine if the bomb has a dead hand system, there must be a timer before it detonates. We can…reasonably, evacuate the men from the 5th MEU by helicopters if we preposition them now.”

“I’m going to warn again,” Marie’s voice turned lower. “We have no idea how much these bastards are watching our moves. Preparing the evacuation helicopters might get us in trouble.”

“But if we fail to negotiate, we’d have to evacuate our people at least, in the event Lotus Team and Rose Team can’t defuse it.”

“Millions of civilians will still die,” Nia said. “There’s no way we can evacuate them. It’s either we negotiate them out of detonating it or defuse it.”

Amelie buried her face in her hands.

“This is difficult.”

“Well, this is unprecedented. I don’t think anyone in the history of this world ever had to deal with bullcrap like this,” William reassured.

“Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Amelie reasoned. “Perhaps we should just tell General Albrecht and Admiral Halberd now about it. They’re level-headed people anyway. Surely, they won’t just order a hasty withdrawal if they find out about it. Then we can have their help with doing the planning. Because…I…I don’t know how to deal with this.”

“Well, I’m also now leaning toward that idea,” William said. “We still, however, run on the possible danger that they’ll both just adamantly order a swift evacuation at once.”

“...Alright then,” Amelie turned to Marie. “Marie, order them to focus on defusing the bomb. William, report this to the OHC and summon an emergency meeting. Then, we’ll preposition evacuation helicopters in Levantine, all while stopping any reinforcements from coming in. And then…goddess…if we stop combat operations they might still notice…”

“No, I think that’s the best we can do,” William said. “Maybe…maybe Lotus and Rose Team can defuse the bomb. If not, we already failed. Best we can get our troops out fast.”

“What about the Lorathians?” Nia asked.

“They’ll get in on the evacuation too once it’s ordered,” Amelie said. “Just…just do what I said, everyone. Then we’ll discuss this further as the situation goes on.”

Marie breathed in deeply.

“So I guess it all comes down to how the RIU can perform today, huh?” Marie shook her head. “I don’t want my girls to die from this nuke.”

Everyone simply remained silent.