Manaus Air Base, May 12, 2025, 6:07 PM
The FAB (Brazilian Air Force) has been active on the Rodenius continent, with attacks on enemy positions and camps occurring frequently.
The troops positioned in Gim and Kayraorg suffered heavy casualties with each assault, forcing Louria to retreat on the qua tonian front, but reinforcing the defenses in Quila, this action was justified by the heavy losses they had taken in the city and were not willing to lose it.
A new attack on Kayraorg was being prepared, but attention was turned to another topic, the priority became the citizens kidnapped during the massacre.
According to the agents deployed in Louria, they had been taken to a city within the country, called Kaitan, with a large slave trader buying them to sell them at auction in a few days.
A rescue operation was organized, with the air force sending its most experienced fighters in this type of mission, the Para-SARs.
The squadron members were in full uniform, boarding a C-390 Millenium transport plane.
Two F20 Tigershark fighter jets escorted the C-390, both equipped with three free-fall fuel tanks and two Maa-1B Piranha missiles, and as they entered enemy territory they were closely followed by an Embraer E-99 early warning aircraft and two A-29 Super Tucanos, so that if the operation went wrong, the air support would cover the withdrawal of the special forces.
Inside the plane the soldiers were waiting for the moment when the order to launch would be given, with some chatting to kill time.
"Man, I lost all the shares I had in foreign companies."
"At least it was just money, my cousin was in Italy during the transfer."
"Sorry for bringing it up."
"No problem, but what do you think about this war?"
"I think it's fair, we can't let a bunch of terrorists pike Bin Laden in our backyard."
Captain Emilio, was second in command and the oldest man of all present overheard the conversation and decided to butt in.
"Do you really think that? We even have something to do with it."
"What is your opinion of this war, Captain?" Major Robson, the highest ranking person present, asked.
At that moment all attention was on him.
"Sir, if I may say, in my opinion we should not be entering this conflict, the reason behind this 'peace mission' is just for resources."
"What are you getting at?"
"Think about it sir, we only got into this conflict because of the resources in their land, after this is over the government will squeeze every last drop of oil out of these countries, not to mention they will use it as a propaganda tool, that's the real reason they make us wear these Go Pro cameras on our helmets."
The soldiers were ordered to carry a camera in their helmets to supposedly prevent the media from having any loophole to criticize the military's actions, but behind that the government would use the recording to self-promote.
"Pardon my intrusion sir, even if it is like this, I still think we have to act to save the innocent." One of the soldiers listening to the conversation expressed himself, he was the youngest of the squadron.
"We know almost nothing about them, and besides, in all the 7 million years of humanity's existence there have always been massacres of peoples for various issues, we have no right to say who is right and wrong, even more so since we have come less than 1 year."
"So you don't mind innocent people dying and being enslaved?" The major launched his words toward the captain, it made it seem as if he wished to turn his face away from the atrocities committed.
"I do care sir! What I was saying and that we are not heroes of justice, while we fight for our homeland and defend the lives of our own, we stain our hands with blood and murder. I bet most of you here have never thought about those on the other side of the crosshairs of a rifle.
That time many were left wondering about whether what they were doing was right.
In the modern day soldiers forget the horrors of war, with the false sense that it will never happen, or they believe that they are the 'bastion of freedom' and must take their ideology to the rest of the world, the Americans in Afghanistan felt in their own skin how wrong they were.
The world they ended up in would show a new reality that was much more cruel and merciless.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Forty minutes later, skies above Kaitan City, 11:57pm
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The soldiers were standing in front of their seats, just waiting for the launch order, which came 2 minutes later in the form of a green light that came on in the cabin.
"0-1 Launching!"
"0-2 Launching!"
"0-3 Launching!"
This was heard for some time until it reached the two highest ranking combatants, Captain Emilio and Major Robson.
"0-6 Launching!"
"Good riddance." The major spoke to the pilots one last time. "0-50 Launching!"
At that moment all 80 soldiers were in the skies with their parachutes open, some further ahead than the others.
The last to reach the ground was the major, the rest were already in position, with the Alpha group responsible for rescuing the civilians and the Bravo group consisting of 18 soldiers guarding the extraction point.
The city was completely dark and dawn was knocking on the door, but who also knocked on the door were the Para-SARs that landed a few meters from the wall, camouflaging themselves in the darkness of the night.
Two watchmen stood guard at the gate with a torch in their hands. The snipers were in charge of shooting them down simultaneously, with the Imbel Walter-2000 rifles equipped with thermal sights and silencers making the task easier, when the shooting conditions became perfect two lifeless bodies fell together.
Now with the path cleared, the soldiers approached the wall and launched hooks and with the aid of their elevators reached the top of the wall.
The Alpha group cleared the whole place to make sure that the escape route was secured, .many guards were asleep and didn't even know how they died.
To avoid reporting their action, they used the alleys and ditches of the Kaitan city to reach their target, a large mansion in the middle of the city, with large doors adorned with silver details and sculptures all around, but looks don't mean strength, and a crowbar easily solved the matter.
The group split into two teams, with those in charge of rescuing the hostages led by Captain Emilio who conducted sweeps of the house in search of the entrance to the captivity, the task was not difficult as an iron door in the middle of the hallway almost said 'They are here'.
With padlock cutters the entrance was opened, behind the iron door was a long tunnel that led underground.
The soldiers stopped when they saw two torches at the end of the path, the light coming from the fire showed the shadows of two watchmen holding some kind of spear.
The first two in line drew their combat knives and in the greatest 'call of duty' style slowly approached, in the blink of an eye they drove them into the throats of the guards, using the other hand to cover the men's mouths so as not to allow them to alert the rest.
With them dead, the soldiers reached the room where the captives were, only to see a scene that would mark their lives. In each cell there were about 10 women, with the room having a total of 10 cells. They were all in terrible condition, malnourished and badly bruised, wearing nothing but rags.
After the shock of their sight, they pulled themselves together and started to free them, the noise of the chains on the cell doors being broken made them wake up.
Fear was the first thing they felt when they awoke, thinking that they would be killed or raped by those strangely dressed men.
The soldiers realized that even with the bars open they were still afraid and scared of them, it was understandable.
"Don't be afraid, we have come here in the name of Quila to rescue them." Emilio knew that it would do no good to identify themselves as members of the special forces, much less Brazil, since most of the world did not know them.
The captain's words were not enough for them to trust the soldiers, they had suffered a lot during these almost two weeks.
Little by little, overcoming their mistrust and fear, some of them began to leave the cells, the others who were more fearful followed after a while.
"Captain, I think it would be better to leave someone here in case any of these knights show up."
"All right, Diogo and Lauro will stay here, the rest of you accompany me to free the others."
As they were going down the stairs leading to the lower floor, one of the girls stopped him, she had on her lower body a long snake tail in place of her legs and scales on some points on her body.
"Please, I beg you, save my son." The snake woman bowed to him as she begged relentlessly.
For a moment Emilio saw his own wife in her, the captain was married to a woman named Alina whom he loved more-than-anything, but fate was not complacent and during the birth of his son she passed away, an old saying 'one life for another' summed up his pain.
"Please stand up, I will save your child no matter what."
"Thank you very much
On the top floor were the children, their condition was similar to the others they saw on the way. Emilio easily located that woman's son, it wasn't too difficult with the snake-like features of both of them.
The team started transporting the civilians to the extraction site, about 8 soldiers escorted 10 people at a time so it wouldn't become a mess and alert the city knights.
In the mansion garden the captain meets with Major Robson, who was conducting the evacuation of the target, a fat man in his forties to fifties who was handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded, and strangely with a red cheek as if he had taken a blow.
"Sir, we have successfully rescued everyone who was trapped."
"Good job, about 3 groups have already been taken to the extraction point, I want you guys to reinforce the perimeter."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Extraction point, 01:32
At the extraction point, a C-390 took off from the long pianice of grass, that was the sixth to take off, with the seventh being on its way to take the soldiers and a few remaining civilians.
A commotion was generated among the rescued, causing the other soldiers to stop to see what was happening.
The snake woman rescued on the second floor was finally reunited with her son, she waited for almost half an hour until the last group bringing the children arrived.
The scene touched the hearts of everyone there, even the staunchest soldiers let out a small smile at the sight of them hugging each other and crying with joy.
"Still continuing with the same opinion?" Major Robson asked as he looked at the scene with a happy tone.
"I don't know. . ." Emilio had doubts in himself, his conscience said that this war was useless and selfish, but his heart disagreed with that as he watched this reunion.
"Analyze this calmly and come to an answer, listen to your heart and your conscience." It was never too late to rethink some concepts.
The moment of reflection was interrupted by a voice coming out of the major's radio.
"Major Robson, this is Coruja-7, we have located hostile targets within 5 minutes of you coming from the north, by speed they are cavalry soldiers, a total of one hundred of them."
"Copy Coruja-7, do we have air support?"
"Negative major, high risk of civilian casualties. Transport will arrive in 10 minutes, hold the areá until then."
Robson mentally cursed, everything had been perfect, how were they discovered? These questions didn't matter now, a defense had to be formed around the extraction area.
"We have hostile contacts, around a hundred of them, reinforce the perimeter!".
The soldiers began to move, snipers positioned themselves among the bushes to take out priority targets, meanwhile those equipped with machine guns and assault rifles formed a line to defend the civilians.
It didn't take long for the enemies to reach the location, from afar it was possible to see the torches rapidly approaching on the horizon.
"Wait until they get within 500m to open fire!"
The Para-SARs were bloodthirsty, all the training they went through was for this very moment. Every soldier who finishes the special operations course leaves eager to put what he has learned into practice.
This was Brazil's first ground combat against another nation since the end of World War II.
The gallops of the horses were heard loud and clear, crossing the breaking point.
"Fire!"
With the order given all soldiers opened fire on the enemy, a barrage of iron fell on the cavalry, the main source came from the IWI Negev machine guns accompanied by the Imbel IA3 assault rifle.
The 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition pierced the medieval armor like wet paper, the fight was a one-sided massacre, before they could cross the 400m all were dead on the ground, dozens of holes in different places condemned the poor men, who didn't even fight.
Transport arrived minutes later to take them off the battlefield, with the two A-29 Super Tucano's launching their rockets in the Duke's castle area to prevent more troops from being sent.
An investigation was later opened to find out how the knights learned of the rescue operation.