Several minutes earlier. Northern Anjian Forest, Ashait.
Ivan held a Ashaitian repeating rifle in his hand that he had obtained from a dead soldier. "Hey Jack. What do you think of this?" A man who was formerly part of recon 1, Jack Wilson, looked at Ivan after cutting off a branch with a machete. "I think the Ashaitians are learning how to try and deal with us through trial and error." Jack struck a nearby tree with the machete. "And i think its slowly working. Just recently our troops got into a firefight in the border between loyalist Huben and allied Pritmore, around 1,000 CIDA troops and 6,500 Ashaitian troops went up against each other. The casualties however, half of our troops were injured or flat out dead in exchange for 6,000."
Ivan put the repeating rifle on his shoulder. "Loyalists never change huh? They probably had the stopping power of a cruiser. Say, when will the logistics teams stop fucking around and get us a Arnket space ship or at least a heavy tank brigade? Because we don't have any of those." Jack stammered when Ivan finished his sentence. "W-Wh-Wait. I don't mean any disrespect sir but, we didn't get any military equipment that has more stopping power than a damm CG73!? What are the logistics teams doing! Do they want another Afghanistan?"
Ivan chuckled as he put the repeating rifle on his back, finally stopping his playing around with it. "Well i suppose so! Haha. Also you are literally just a rank below me, so you can disregard the formalities. But seriously, where the hell are the tanks." Jack shrugged as he dislodged his machete from the tree he originally put it in. However as he put back his machete something felt wrong to him and he pulled out his CG4A2, Ivan took notice of this too and brought out a CG79 automatic shotgun. "The hell is that?", "Your average ordinary shotgun."
Jack looked confused at Ivan but turned back around. "Whatever. There is bigger issues to be dealing with here." Jack squinted at the nearby forest clearing but saw nothing. "I guess i was just tripping on combat enhancers. Alright, false alarm." Jack lifted his rifle up to sling it on his back but it was hit by a object. "Hm?" He flipped his rifle to see a dagger that was seemingly japanese lodged in the bolt. Jack then took it out and tried to aim his rifle, however another dagger was launched at him. This time a person accompanied it.
Jack now held his rifle as a guard against the person that was trying to kill him. "WHAT THE HELL!" Jack said as he was gripping his rifle for his life. "Ivan a little help here!" Ivan meanwhile was scrambling to react to the sudden attack. "Just fucking shoot for gods sake! What the hell is it!" Jack said angrily as he was slowly losing the battle of strength the person who attacked him gave.
"I cant shoot! This thing has explosive slugs in it!" Ivan tried to bring out his CGP9S while he talked. "WHAT!?" Jack skidded to the side as he avoided a knife to his neck and tried to shoot his rifle, unfortunately the magazine wasn't in the weapon. When Jack looked up he could see the person stick out his tongue and drag down an eyelid (its the best recreation in writing i can give) as he waved his magazine around before resuming combat. "Oh you little sh-" Suddenly both people fighting heard 3 gunshots and the person fighting Jack went down. Ivan had finally got out his pistol and did something.
"Finally, you did something." Jack said as he stared at the person who attacked him. On further inspection he saw that he had orange fox ears with the same hair color as well as mercenary style clothing. "Is he dead?" Ivan asked. "No, you only shot him in the leg and torso. It seems you didn't hit any vital organs and only made him collapse from pain, i guess." Jack said while disarming the fox and signaling the medical crews to head to their location. "Well good. Im not about to take any more surprises from now on. Say, shouldn't there be someone-"
Ivan was stabbed in his left shoulder by another fox, this time a female. "ARGH SHIT! Well it's better than my injuries in Warsaw but still!" The female fox then tried to stab his left arm but was met with a *clank* sound. Ivan then aimed his machine pistol, as much as he could anyway, to the female fox who was confused about the metallic sound. "Cybernetics, bitch." Ivan let off 10 rounds that got the fox off of him, one almost hitting the heart. "Jesus! Ivan are you alright!", "*cough* Where the hell were you this time? Just shoot, you had the magazine already." Jack was about to argue with him but noting the fact that he was just about to die he refrained. Just then the medical crews arrived.
"The hell happened here?" A medic said. "An attack. Some Afghanistan bullshit happened and he was stabbed in the shoulder." Jack said while pointing to Ivan. Meanwhile he was trying to convince two medics that he didn't need any assistance for now as he wasn't losing too much blood, however the medics insisted.
"No, no. Its fine, I've had worse wounds than this." A medic grabbed his right shoulder. "It isn't fine goddammit. Just let us bandage your wounds for gods sake!" Ivan sighed. "No really, i can still lead." A medic knocked Ivan out with the stock of his shotgun as he wasn't letting him die from blood loss and then bandaged him up. "Well, should have let the medics heal him." Jack said while shrugging his arms. He then walked up to the two fox humans that attacked both of them, however a medic stopped him.
"Listen if you think im going to let you waste medical equipment by executing both of them then expect a scalpel in your neck. Hear me?" The medic said. Jack, who was now intimidated nodded. "Good. Its a win-win for us then. I don't waste a single needle and you don't waste a bullet." The medics said as Jack walked away. "Well, guess that's the thing with medics. They're the most willing to kill anyone for any purpose, it's like they have an aura of intimidation. Right Ivan-" Jack said before noticing that Ivan was still knocked out. "Must have hit him hard as hell."
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"Holy crap!" Ivan said while jumping himself awake. He looked around as the last thing he remembered, the stock of his shotgun knocked him out completely. "Major! Are you alright!" A man said while running up to Ivan. "God. Yes i'm alright for now Terrence." Ivan held his hand on the spot he was hit on as Terrence tried to help him stand.
"Captain Terrence Marc, former leader of Recon 1 eh? Well who took command while i was gone?" Ivan asked Terrence. "Sir, Captain Akane Ayaka took command of the assault team." Ivan stood up but heard a crack in his back which prompted Terrence to try to help him again, in which Ivan refused. "So Akane was here huh? Well what about the person who knocked me out?" Terrence paused before answering. "The medic who knocked you out is going to face trial for attacking a superior."
"Tell them to just keep him back at Lusperia Hill. We cant afford to bring back or lose a single soldier as it stands. The Ashaitians are learning how to kill us properly, instead of just sending men at us they are using gruella tactics by hiding in the trees. Seem familiar to you? Ask the USA." Ivan grabs his shotgun that was placed next to him. "Did you get knocked out so hard that you started thinking rationally?" Terrence asked, in which Ivan chuckled. "Heh, probably. Come on lets go." Ivan started walking and went to Akane and told her to give up command to him. After she did, Ivan ordered that the entire assault team should start moving.
A few minutes after the assault team started marching towards Jianghai however, they were intercepted. One thing leads to another and the interceptors, who were a group of demi-humans fighting for their equal rights, discover the existence of radios. "Hand over your magic tool human!" Ivan who had just woke up from being knocked out hard a minute ago and was now starting to feel the effects and now wasn't thinking reasonably. "Hell no." The demi-human, specifically a dog, looked at Ivan with anger. "I said hand it over now! Or off goes your head!"
Ivan who was still having the effects of somebody who woke up after 3 hours of sleep didn't take the dog seriously. "Look up jackass." The dog who was confused at first looked up and saw a drone pass by. By just sheer luck a drone had passed by the exact spot they were in, it wasn't armed with any missiles or small weapons but it was enough to unsettle the dog. "Wh-What the hell was that thing!" Ivan who was starting to slowly recover from his blunt force trauma realized that luck was on his side of the argument. "Saw that? Yea, that 'thing' could destroy an entire city if it wanted to. So i would recommend to start talking and stop instigating what could be a future incident."
The dog held his swords grip tightly as if intending to swing it, however he was stopped by another demi-human. A fox specifically. "And who are you?" Ivan asked as he was trying to recollect what just happened as he had no awareness before. "Greetings other-worldly knight. I am Jelka, the leader of the Ascotian Liberation Front.", "Cool, cool. Captain Ivan Nile, leader of the MK-1 assault team, tasked to try and take over Jianghai faster than MK-2. Origin? New Canteria, nice to meet ya." Ivan held his hand out and offered a handshake. "Uh, Ivan? What am i supposed to do?" Jelka asked quietly, In which Ivan took a quiet tone too. "Just grasp my hand. Its a greeting where i'm from."
Jelka reluctantly shakes Ivan's hand and shakes it. "Alright good. Want to join us in destroying Ashait? You can get whatever you want in the north afterwards." Jelka smiles at Ivan's confidence. "I shall join you in your adventure then. However i expect you not to be unwise as to not make me regret my decision.", "Heh. Some of the people you see at Lusperia might be straight up bumbling idiots, but we aren't however. Look forward to us, we are slightly better than the people back home."
Suddenly rustling was heard in the nearby bushes to them. After the rustling stopped it revealed MK-2. "You needed help?" Sergei asks while breathing in and out, signifying that he was tired from running. "Oh we were just about to notify you that we had gotten some new allies.", "Jesus Christ." Sergei coughed repeatedly as he was metaphorically dying from not enough air. "So you don't need help?" Ivan gave a smile as he was internally laughing at the situation. "Nope.", "Oh my god. And here we were running towards you, worried that you folks might have died already. Thank god that that the 344th armored division showed up."
Ivan retook a serious tone as he never expected armored support. "The wha-" Suddenly a tank rolls up and crushes a nearby tree as its weight could dent aluminum. Its cannon, meanwhile is aimed the opposite way from the now-crushed tree as it would have reached it first since its shells are larger than entire rockets. "Oh finally, the medium tanks arrived." Ivan said before he looked to his right. On his right, Jelka who was semi competent was now completely shocked to his core, trying to process the existence of tanks, or the existence of motorized vehicles in general. Adding to it was the fact that Ivan said medium.
"T-These are medium!? These iron carriages are bigger than actual carriages!" Ivan and Sergei looked at each other and back at Jelka. "I mean, some of the tanks back home are bigger than houses, so yea." Jelka could only stare in silence and shock. "Well enough monologuing. guess its time to finally do what we came for, right?", "Yes, we were already behind schedule as of now. So what's the plan for this?" Ivan thinks for a while before responding. "Hear me out here."
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The 344th armored division hovered (yes hovered.) over to the east gate and activated their camouflage. As soon as they were perfectly disguised as a group of bushes they aimed their cannons up at the walls of the gate without any interruptions. Nobody from the wall did see the tanks as they were having a personnel switch at the time either. It was perfect, however it didn't go so well for the assault teams.
"Oh shit." Ivan said while seeing the west gate arm themselves. They had seen the movements of the AIF and MK and started to get suspicious. Unlike the east gate there was no personnel change. Furthermore there was barely any cover, only a few bushes and trees. "Well ladies and gentlemen. It looks like that we have been spotted." Ivan grabs a radio from his belt. "Our cover has been blown. Open fire now."