August 6th, 2064 AD/August 7th, 1800 AIC. Anjian Forest, Ashait
A Canterian soldier with a, rather weird shape puts down a pair of thermal vision goggles and picked up a radio "This is MK-2, reporting. Over." The radio responded "This is MK-1, we hear you loud and clear." The soldier uses hand signals to communicate to another soldier to arm himself. "We have detected a merchant convoy nearing our position. Thermal vision says there's 110 clear heat signatures, however there are 20 anomalies that suggest there's people that normal thermal vision wouldn't reveal easily. Should we intercept?"
The radio gave a long pause before it crackled, giving out a response. "Interception has been approved by Pritmore command. Furthermore command has ordered that you should use any method to get to Jianghai, no matter the cost or if its moral." The soldier looked at the radio. "Jianghai?", "The capital of Ashait, CIDASF and CSSA had a hell of a time figuring that out from the prisoners. But enough electric shock works on people."
The soldier chuckled. "What a bunch of lunatics. They probably invented the electric chair too." Another soldier walked up as the radio was turned off. "Captain Xui'an. What are your orders?" The soldier, now known as Xui'an looked at the other soldier. "Ah, Lieutenant Sergei, we have been ordered by command to intercept-" Xui'an pointed at carriages moving along a road. "those carriages. I want you to assemble two assault teams, one to block them from going anywhere and one to search their cargo. Understood?" Sergei nodded.
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"Come on! We got to haul these slaves past the border to Adria or we aren't eating tonight!" A merchant, who was a slave trader specifically, said. He looked at a carriage and saw that the slaves were trying to escape. However they were put in too many chains to actually do anything. The merchant sighed. Ever since he was forced to work for a slavery ring due to his son getting sick, he had felt some remorse for the slaves, after all they were forced out all the way from the northern countryside to Pritmore to Adria where they'll probably used as labor or worse. But then again, he had to get his son back no matter the cost.
Suddenly he heard commotion from the front of the convoy, specifically from the guards. "WHO THE HELL ARE-" A unknown voice joined the chaos. "FIRE!" The merchant felt his ear drums ringing as he heard constant musket shots from the front of the convoy. Due to the intensity of the noises he thought he was going to die, however the noises stopped.
The merchant peaked right and saw all of the guards dead. A soldier wielding what was supposedly a magic weapon (he's talking about a CG4A2) then walked into his line of sight and made eye contact. The soldier fearing the worst brought up his magic weapon in a attacking stance.
"STEP OUT OF THE CARRIAGE AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP NOW!" The soldier said with a frightening tone. The merchant went back in his carriage quickly trying to process what he just heard. However it wasn't the right move as it forced the soldier to walk up. "I SAID STEP OUT OF THE CARRIAGE OR YOU WILL BE SHOT!" The merchant realizing that the soldier wanted him out of hiding complied. After he went out he saw that there were many other merchants alongside him outside their carriages. The soldier calmed down and put his magic weapon down.
"Alright. Hands up." The soldier said. However a fellow merchant wasn't having it. "Bullshit! You force us out of our carriages and expect us to comply to everything you say?" The soldier was getting visibly agitated. "I said put your fucking hands up motherfucker!" The soldier said while emphasizing that he had a magic weapon that could kill. "Hell fucking no! We need to deliver some fucking cargo! So step aside with your toy and let us pass bitch!" The soldier who was agitated earlier was now full on ticked off.
"I SAID PUT YOUR HANDS UP NOW." The fellow merchant however was not willing to budge unless, say a musket ball hit him. "OH? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO-" The soldier let off two magic projectiles (plasmite bullets) from his magic weapon and killed the fellow merchant with one hit in the head and another to his lungs. Two other soldiers then ran up with differently shaped magical weapons and started talking in Kudroenian, well that's what the merchant assumed.
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"What the fuck is happening?" The third soldier said as he loaded a magazine into his CGP9S, a variant of the CGP9 which is designed for automatic fire. "A merchant was disobeying my commands. So i shot him." The first soldier said. The second soldier then put his right hand on his forehead. "Oh my FUCKING GOD! You are literally worse than American cops post revolution! And your intelligence matches a normal one as well! SPED ass-" The third soldier calmed the second down.
"Cool it. What the hell happened and what caused it?" The third soldier said. The first who was still processing what the second soldier said was brought back to reality. "Well, one of the merchants was ignoring my orders for him to put his hands up. And so i shot him, i had nothing to restrain him with so i chose the easy way." The second soldier who was just as angry as the first when he was still debating the, now dead, merchant held the bridge of his nose. "That just makes you worse than the cop who shot Georgette Floyd! Also right ass pockets."
The third soldier looked at the second with confusion. "Georgette Floyd?" The second soldier looked back at the third, essentially leaving the first soldier out of the conversation who was still searching his right back pocket. "Georgette Floyd. A black American woman who was shot by Minneapolis police after she was suspected to be using a counterfeit 50 dollar bill to buy groceries for her family. After her death there were many anti-police riots all across the USA and was a reason why it fell. Didn't you learn about this?"
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The third soldier looked embarrassed and avoided direct eye contact "Well i did but i never studied up on it. I slept in my history class back in 58, so i only heard that her death was a reason why America fell. The teacher never called home because of it however. I got to hand it to him, he's the reason why i wasn't homeschooled and i got into the agency. But where were we?" The third and second soldier looked at the first just as he brought out zip ties.
"Oh. We had these the entire time?" The second soldier went back to his angry demeanor. "Fucking dumbass, you are a specialist. Whelp i guess we have to address the merchants now. I guess ill try with my shitty Mandarin knowledge, wish me luck"
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The merchant stood confused as he tried to interpret what the three soldiers said. Judging by the three soldiers hand movements it seemed as if the fellow merchant wasn't meant to be shot and he was an idiot for doing so. Just then a soldier who was different from the previous walked up. "Uh. Hello, how are you?" Another merchant responded. "Shaken up after you just killed one of our comrades."
The second soldier looked in confusion as he wasn't accustomed to Ashaitian and only knew words, not sentences. The first soldier walked up to the second soldier and became a translator to help the situation, which wasn't needed but was appreciated. But where was the third soldier? Well...
A yell in Russian came from the third soldier as he found the carriage with slaves. The two other soldiers who were caught off guard by this shout started speaking Russian alongside the third soldier. "What do you think they are saying?" A person behind the merchant asked. Unlike the merchant he was an arms dealer that dealt with muskets, smooth-bore and rifled. He also sold magical weapons, although not as strange as the ones that killed the guards or the fellow merchant. The arms dealer essentially sold any ranged weapon that could be explained by the laws of science or magic.
"Something that probably will decide if we live or not. Because they just found the carriage with the slaves." The arms dealer gave out a exhausted sigh. "There goes three quarters of our damm income for fucks sake!" The merchant, not wanting to have a repeat of last time stayed silent. Just as the arms dealer was about to make another statement he was interrupted by a soldier. "On the wall of that carriage, now." The merchant, the arms dealer as well as three other people complied. Soon after, seven more others joined the wall. Each being accompanied by a two sets of soldiers. So far nothing shocking would happen.
But then two people showed up. One a regular human and one, an unnatural being. One that could be described as beyond Ascotia or Terra Nostrum, an interstellar being perhaps. But in the eyes of the 12 people against the wall, they were demons, and in so they were scared shitless. Not realizing the fact that 9/10th of the guards and merchants were gone or missing. All they paid attention to was the alien standing in front of them. The human went up to the alien and spoke to it in Russian to prevent their conversation to be heard.
From the point of view of the merchant it had seemed like that the two were having a conversation about whether to sell them to the markets or use them as free labor but their discussion was worse, much worse.
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"Captain Xui'an. What you are suggesting is a violation of the Organization of Nations, Geneva Convention!" Sergei objects. "Leave it Sergei. The ON was disbanded after those krauts started to fuck around in Europe in the 2030s. We had to violate those same rules to fasten the war effort." Xui'an says while loading his CG4A2 with a 100 round drum. Sergei was still trying to make a point however. "Xui'an! The Geneva Convention is still a valid document, The ASDA, AIPO and PCI are still enforcing it under strict orders from their respective leader nations!"
Xui'an sighed. "That document is around 120 years old. Besides, the krauts, occultists, communists and literally anyone else have broken every rule in that document, individually. The Geneva Convention could go in the trash. Especially since this is a fantasy world so there's no rules of war, and unlike last time we are far from any command." Sergei gritted his teeth. "I will not end up like my sister and be locked in a prison complex in the sea of Okhotsk!" Xui'an looked at Sergei.
"Are you defying orders?" Xui'an said while pointing the CG4A2 at Sergei. In which several soldiers started aiming guns at Sergei. "Go ahead and shoot me. The entire world is waiting to get another chance to see if New Canteria is going to be ripped apart again. The PCI is also going to be waiting to arrest you on the spot." Sergei said. It seemed to Xui'an that he would have a difficult time wiping off Sergei's existence if he ever needed to.
Xui'an stopped aiming at Sergei and instead at the merchants. "Alright. Since you are so stubborn i guess ill do it myself." Sergei, realizing what Xui'an was going to do tried to stop him but alas, it was too late. 47 8.25 PCI rounds burst through the air as they hit their victims. Each of them killing the merchants. No merchant was spared and all of them were killed on the spot. "Holy shit." Sergei said. "Lets go loyalist. Even if this IS a fantasy world the existence of drones are still a thing." Xui'an slung his CG4A2 on his back and started to march out after letting the slaves loose. "So you were lying about the 'far from command' sentence!?"
Xui'an clicked his tounge (well if he had one, he is an alien) and looked at Sergei. "I wasn't necessarily lying but our forces haven't got even close to 500 sky eyes (slang for drones) up anyway. So in the next two months you can essentially do whatever shit you want. Come on, lets go." Sergei let out a frustrated groan, although it was silent. Sergei was then handed the radio that Xui'an had during march but suddenly it crackled to life. "Hmm?" Xui'an let out as he looked behind him to see Sergei scrambling to find the right frequency. "This is Major Ivan Nile of MK-1. Im afraid to say this but it seems that you guys will have rescue us."
Sergei looked at the radio in confusion. "The hell do you mean we have to rescue you? Also where is the radio operator", "I mean that you have to rescue us from this shit. Our radio operator was shot by an arrow and we are currently being held up by demi humans." At this point Xui'an completely turned to face Sergei. "Explain the situation.", "An armed group of what i assume to be terrorists has surrounded us, get your asses over here." Sergei put his right hand on his forehead. "Goddamit. Fine we'll see if we can order air support for you guys.", "Good because i think- HEY! THAT HUMAN HAS A MAGIC DEVICE! -oh shit." The radio cuts off and Sergei and Xui'an sighs.