01:08 HOURS.
MONDAY, 29 AUTUMNSUS 1441.
BISHMARK OUTSKIRTS, YONDEL.
THE BLOOD-FILLED STARS looked upon Mike with a frown. We’ve been here for too long.
The supply line that was created by the 12th Mountain Corps had been stonewalled by the city mayor. If the commanding officers of the Corps had been seduced by the reasoning the mayor provided, then the sergeant would much rather play a game of Blackjack at the nearest casino than place any faith in the chain of command that was overseeing the response to Bishmark. Earlier forces that had taken arms had confronted the supposed raiders and demons that were sighted by the Royal Guard. It was ironic in its own manner; civilians complemented by a small number of troops were responsible for holding the line while the guard remained within the city to maintain peace and order.
That alone made him think of his time in Africa.
It was too late to make a change, of course, there were things simply out of their control. Princess Leccamaradel had tried her best to intervene in the rapidly deteriorating situation within the city, but there was no one she could trust to carry out the mission without them suggesting that they themselves were to storm the frontlines with no support. It came to the point where she was forced to use her royal authority to force the knight captain of the local Royal Guard garrison to dispatch relief forces. It was a complex ordeal. There was little she could do even if she flexed her position as princess. All local matters and authority would supersede any action taken by the king and his circle—well, it was due to the monetary loss that the kingdom would receive from this disaster. We’d be lucky if an execution is on the table—hopefully not for us. Mike twirled a bronze bullet between his fingers.
Biting his tongue, Mike returned the single bullet into a small pouch on his plate carrier. Staring straight ahead through his electronic goggles, he set sight upon the blood coated grass, sand dunes and muddy dirt. Complimenting the odd coloration, bodies were scattered across the vast field. The scattered rays of moonlight shined upon the ground and reflected on a small stream of ocean water that had collided with marred fresh water.
Alone. Mike felt alone.
It wasn’t that he was, there was his squadron sitting behind him in a nearby crater tending to the wounds of three officers. Through apathetic eyes he could only wonder if God had left this world and allowed such beauty to be destroyed. Nature was never meant to be peaceful, but what he had to witness after the strike was something he wished to never see again, yet here he was. Explosions large enough to create craters in the ground, bodies strung on burning piles of wood. The silence was more than enough to give him the time to collect his thoughts.
Flipping over his wrist the muted colors of his watch showed the time, 01:15. He had spent enough time on watch.
Moving under the cover of darkness, the sergeant crawled backwards and lowered himself into the crater behind him. His pants dragged on the mud and dirt covering it in a thin, unorganized layer as he landed to the immediate right of Princess Leccamaradel. With kind eyes did Lecca allowed herself to be distracted by the sergeant. Her gaze lingered for a few seconds as the Ranger settled into place; he was silently readjusting his plate carrier and he rolled up the sleeves of his combat shirt. Mike was her closest confidant within the Rangers, and to Mike she was much of the same. They had only known each other for a short time, but in between lessons and training they were able to understand the two different worlds they came from.
Separating his lips, the sergeant felt a heavy, shaky breath escape from his lips. The cloth gator mask he had over his face pressed the warmth against his skin. He felt unsettled as he leaned his head back towards the darkened sky.
Over 200 were dead based on recent reports that were delivered to the mayor less than five hours ago. The first accusation was thrown at the so-called Demon Lord and his army. However, the modus operandi that orchestrated the attack didn’t line up with a plausible first strike against the kingdom. If Mike were to initiate war, he would focus on eliminating shipping companies, military installations, and communication relays. To simply go after the central hub of the kingdom made sense in theory, but Bishmark was deep into the kingdom’s territory that any attacking forces would be stretched too thin.
“Sergeant, are you not going to rest?” Lecca shuffled slightly closer to him. She wanted to be close enough to whisper so as not to disturb the others sitting in the collection of craters.
“No, not until we get back behind the walls,” He responded in a scratchy voice. “Someone has to look out for trouble. And we’re on rotation right now. At least until we get word back from the guard.” Tearing his eyes away from the silver-haired maiden, Mike spotted PFC Jacob crawling into an observation position. The boy laid flat against the ground as he scanned the field through his night-vision capable goggles.
Tracing where Mike’s vision ended, Lecca parted her lips and found the strength to speak once more, “Is your world like this?” The question was nuanced due to her not providing a particular topic. Mike could’ve interpreted it however he wanted. If the line of conversation was to follow how they found themselves inside of a muddy ditch in the aftermath of a large-scale attack, then she would gladly speak to him about such a gruesome reality. However, it seemed that the sergeant was distracted. His brown eyes, the same in color as her own, scanned over the distant bodies and craters, yet they never stayed in place.
“We call it Earth. My home world is completely different than this. Magic, monsters, so called Demon Lords, they don’t exist outside of the realm of fantasy. Humanity is the apex species, so naturally there are some caveats that follow.” By now he had lowered his head into the collar of his white tunic and the sturdy frame of his multi-colored plate carrier. His gravelly voice had garnered the attention of the other Rangers in the mud, and the three kingdom officers that they were protecting. Eugene, Marco, and Anne were just as curious as the princess next to him about his home world, and just for a moment, Mike hesitated to continue as a distant scream echoed over the dead lands that surrounded them.
He let out a gentle chuckle. It was hard to believe that he had spent more than a week in this foreign place. At times he wondered if had ended up in some alternative earth trapped within the multiverse theory.
“Humanity’s fortress, Earth is place of pure beauty, and it has no need for magic to make it breathtaking,” Mike spoke of his home world fondly. “Our reach goes beyond the stars, but the same thing remains to all militaries around the world; our mission is to protect the Earth. At least, that’s the base-level job description. We have wars and other conflicts, so sometimes we get wrapped up in destruction more than protection. Still, we always prevail, that’s how far we can get through pure intellect and craftsmanship. Our abilities make magic obsolete.”
“Magic-obsolete?” Lecca parroted with large eyes. It was a difficult concept to understand. Considering she was born in a world of magic, and had grown up beside it her entire life, to imagine the cold steel and mechanical prowess the men she command displayed being commonplace was something that took her a minute to picturize.
“Cooking, cleaning, common recreational activities. All have had technology integrated and it helps us be a more productive version of humanity than we could ever hope to imagine. I don’t think we’ll ever become detached from our computers, but I still believe there needs to be a fine line on how and where we use technology.”
“The President was pushing for Congress to introduce a bill, wasn’t he?” Anthony asked, cutting into the conversation, and allowing everyone to participate.
“Yeah, I think that’s what he was aiming for,” Jacob responded with a nod of the head.
Tucking her legs close to her chest, and hugging them with her exposed arms, Lecca rested against the muddy wall of the crater. The pearlescent moon and its accompanying stars numbering well over the millions painted gentle bars of light through the scattered clouds and against her silver locks that had been concealed by mud, dust, and ashes. Her mind wandered and pondered the existence of Earth and the world the Rangers described; she would like to visit such a place, to learn more about a world that had surpassed her own. She could admit that this world was stuck in the past, technology had barely advanced within the last 100 years, and for the foreseeable future it seemed that it would remain in place.
“Not everything is bad,” Oliver said. “We get the tools for our trade right here.” He patted his FDE carbine laying across his chest. His Rangers all smiled, some even bothering to chuckle to his words. He was right, they had the tools they needed to survive in this world. The only thing that would stop them was running out of supplies, but the captain had enough confidence in the Kingdom, minus the obvious lack of information, that they would receive everything they needed to undertake whatever mission was necessary.
“Lieutenant, time check on the patrol?” Sergeant Malkovich asked as he momentarily turned around from his makeshift observation post.
“Fifteen mikes over last contact.”
“They should’ve been back by now. Fucking Royal Guard.”
Malkovich as steadfast in his assessment. For those trained to protect members of the royal family, government personnel, and special envoys, they were supposed to be the most experienced fighters amongst the kingdom’s armed forces. From the spare training sessions he had seen in passing, and the one time he had sparred against one of their most confidant, Malkovich had quickly learned that only some were up to the task of defending the throne. Most spent their time frolicking about the castle instead of patrolling. If he did anything remotely close to what they did during his time in RASP, the Cadre would’ve eaten him alive then threw him out of the selection. He was even willing to bet that the Capital Police, or some other protective service agency in the hands of American politicians would be able to conduct their jobs at a superior level and prevent an incident that would get them on the front page of a newspaper.
“This isn’t good, God damnit,” Malkovich agreed with Lieutenant Andrew’s sentiment. Eventually this would evolve past the shit show that it currently was.
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Though they had only spent a short time in this world, the Kingdom of Yondel had spent months planning a possible return of a world threat, one that could very well be the foretold Demon Lord. Their intelligence network was expansive, but it wasn’t enough to stop what had happened here. The failure of the Royal Guard proved that.
“Get set to RTB,” Oliver looked over his shoulder. Raising his left hand, the captain deactivated the display on his visor and attempted to blink away from the light that had been burned into his eyes. He slowly rose from the ground and stood hunched in the crater. His eyes skimmed over the edge. Above, the clearing sky was untouched by light pollution, and the crisp stars and shining moonlight highlighted their position on the battlefield. Even the cool temperature of the night sky made him feel at ease, but still, he remained alert as the combatants around him awaited the order to move away from these death lands.
“That’s great. Can’t wait to get out of this shithole,” Corporal Anthony said. Amongst the NCOs within the squadron-sized element, it seemed odd that Anthony was a corporal, let alone a Ranger. He was naturally accustomed to the everyday life of a grunt; this was his second enlistment after all. There was little he couldn’t handle, and at times his fellow brothers-in-arms called him a graduated specialist with how he handled anything that required a meager amount of effort. Humping his pack on his back and securing it in place, the corporal watched the captain’s fingers in case he would make the order through a hand sign rather than orally.
Just from how one of his soldiers was acting, Oliver knew that everyone was beyond tired. It had been an odd day: patrolling a combat zone without firing a single bullet. It wasn’t that he wanted to fire his weapon, he did enjoy it as it was his job, however, he hadn’t found himself in an engagement within the last two weeks and eventually he would grow accustomed to the routine job of paperwork and management. He had already gained five pounds from the constant meetings he had to sit through with Yondel’s military officers, and he was having trouble finding time to hit the gym or get in repetitions with his weapons.
Everyone was feeling the drag of day-to-day operations, and the one chance to change the schedule didn’t do much to improve morale.
“Alright, get up. We’re moving in two mikes.”
Raising from the ground, Sergeant Mike held his rifle and cloak close to his body. The brown fiber felt warm as he brushed his hair back and placed his helmet on his head. Strapping it in place, he spared a momentary glance to Lecca who helped the other kingdom officers from the ground.
Noticing the sergeant’s gaze, the princess felt a question tug at her heart. She forced herself to ask, “What is it that you Rangers wish to do?”
Oliver noticed the weak voice the princess held. Though the question was motioned towards his subordinate, the captain knew that this was something he had to answer.
“We all want to return to our homes. Yondel, this world is beautiful, but we’re being kept here under the assumption that we kill the Demon Lord. I don’t like it, so I’m sure you can understand our hurry.”
“And your strategy is to end up in that position?”
“Say again?”
There was a silent pause.
Silence was followed by no answer.
“I wonder if other people like us ended up in a situation like this.”
The words that Mike said were ingrained in the minds of everyone present as the other Rangers rose from the crater and moved silently into formation around the princess and the three beaten knights.
They stood in a diamond shaped formation around the wounded officers and the princess. At moment’s notice they would engage any threats, but the mission was to avoid conflict until they could reach the safety of the walls that surrounded Bishmark. Upon a single word from Oliver, the group set out under the dispersed rays from the moon. Their shadows were casted upon the battlefield as they walked the blood-stained fields; other than the flowers that acted as small headstones for those killed during the attack, not a single facet of life could be seen as the group stepped onto ground level. The beauty that once laid across the fast fields was gone. In a mere hour, humanity had destroyed everything and created a wasteland. Though the ground was not painted in a crimson liquid, bodies became silhouetted under the moonlight. Alongside a pile of maimed bodies, Lecca took in a breath of the iron-stained air. Her arms unfolded and fell to her side. The cold harvest wind battered against her exposed skin making her shiver. She once more wrapped her arms around herself. She felt safe being in the custody of the Rangers, her ‘Holy Knights’.
Fifteen minutes had passed. Passing the piles of dead bodies and destroyed fortifications, the group had arrived under the watch of the darkened city walls. High above the wall, sentries and their filed officers watched as the large gaggle of military personnel gained access to enter the interior of the city. They had orders to cut down anyone that even posed the smallest of threats, after all the entire city was placed under lockdown with the sudden attack. Thankfully, Captain Oliver led his group through unimpeded. Their gear, though unrecognizable and hidden below the dark cloaks they wore, painted them as being a part of the Royal Guard due to the personnel they were escorting. Passing by several light posts that were powered by small mana gems within, they were temporarily illuminated, visible for all to see. Amongst the citizens that were trying to clean the ruins within the city, they received no glances of ire, yet no one gave them respect either.
It could easily be said that Leccamaradel was not happy about what she saw within the walls. Everyone around her caught on to the dismay she presented. She was beyond disappointed with having to spend this night watching her people pick up the remaining pieces from an attack that showed the glaring weakness of her kingdom. Her eyes followed a group of unnamed civilians as they moved a gargantuan piece of rubble from a building that had collapsed. How did this happen? Lecca’s mind raced to find an answer.
Just beyond where they stood, the commanding voice of a nearby knight, one owned by the local garrison, shouting at a group of nearby volunteers and soldiers. The man clicked his tongue at one of the younger men that hesitated to move to assist the cleanup, but his worried were set aside once he had laid eyes on the large group of newcomers. With a chip on his shoulder, the man revealed himself under the light of a still functioning light post. His spit-shined boots practically glowed in the light, and his monotone grey clothes were complemented by the red brazen sash over his chest.
“The clean-up and restoration operations are in progress. I want you all to assist in the collection of bodies in the residential district for identification,” He proudly boasted his aura of leadership as he made the demand.
“Did—” Before Oliver could make his retort to the man, he vanished into the darkness just as quickly as he appeared.
“Clean up?” Andrew murmured.
The captain let out a brief sigh, “We should get going.”
With no other choice, Oliver took off following a group of unnamed soldiers that had crossed paths with them. Marco, Eugene, and Anne split from the group in silence. Their destination would be different from where the Rangers and princess were heading, and they still had to make their reports to the garrison commander. As they stalked away in darkness, the path that they left behind held carnage and gore beyond uncomfortable levels. All along the moonlit streets, faint dots of glowing red embers touched the stone bricks and became impossible to ignore.
“I thought the attack happened strictly to the south side?” Jacob observed the destroyed street before he kneeled above a burning piece of wood. He stomped it out before continuing, “This place looks like it was hit by a one-fifty-five, or an MLRS.”
“If it was a two-front attack, there’s nothing we could’ve done to stop it,” Jonah said as he eyed his fellow PFC.
“We were stuck on the southern front, yet this place was hit. It couldn’t have been a stray munition. Those magic balls they were shooting is only reminiscent of short-range artillery, like the 84s.”
“True.” Richard added. “If we were here anyways, we could’ve been caught in this shit that did this.”
An uneasy silence fell upon the group. Spotting a collection of people in the ruins of a building, Andrew notified the group, and the small distance in between was traversed with minor difficulty. Unnerved by how many people were at this single building, Oliver took the lead as he maneuvered through the crowd. Entering what looked to be an inn, the interior of the building was abnormally cold with a brisk wind creating a windchill. In this disaster the only source of warmth was the scattered groups of soldiers and civilians and the occasional lit torch along the walls. Oliver quickly assumed that this was some form of a command post as his eyes settled on a group of white cloaked individuals acting as coordinators at the reception desk. He eventually settled on the smallest person present, a small, black-haired girl that instantly locked eyes with his own. Raising from her spot, the girl strutted over to the group with an aura that reminded the captain of the church acolytes he had encountered in the capital. Under the veil of night vision and the torchlights, the girl only looked to be ten years old, but based on the professional disposition she provided, it could be easily guessed that she was older or more mature than the average child.
Mike was the first to notice the insignia of the royal guard on the girl’s cloak. A child guardsman? He questioned the legitimacy of the kingdom.
“Holy knights, my princess dearest, I am Ariel Harold, daughter of Count Leonidas Harold,” the young girl curtsied to the princess. “The Royal Guard made me aware of your sudden departure from the capital and your subsequent arrival in Bishmark. I do apologize for my tardiness, but your exit from the capital was not on record.”
“They’ve been watching us?” Lecca said.
Ariel raised an eyebrow to what the princess had said. She shook her head as the others surrounding her didn’t notice anything. “There is a nearby site that needs to be examined. It would be best to head there now.”
As she walked to the entrance of the room, Ariel noticed how the “Holy Knights” all stood around the First-Born Princess with confused looks. Leccamaradel was taken aback by the faint threat given by the mage, yet she did nothing to retaliate.
“You good?” Malkovich said concerned.
Coughing into her hand, clearing the awkward and confusing atmosphere established by the mage, Lecca spoke flustered as she tapped Mike on the shoulder as she walked off. “We must hurry to the site… Come along now…”
Looking to and from the place where he was tapped. Mike was somewhat confused as he watched the princess stand near the door waiting for himself and the others to follow.
“C’mon lucky bastard. Time to go,” Jacob chuckled as he continued to curse out his now flustered Sergeant.
Walking outside the now group of twelve travelled around the ruined city to reach a collapsed building near the western gate. A large scar laid in the middle of the street, bodies were collected to the side and covered with a shredded tarp, a pool of blood collected under the palates, and the scar. Ariel stomached the thought of a whole group being simply vaporized under the sudden heat and pressure of the object that caused the canal. An unsettling feeling rested in her stomach. Luckily Sergeant Malkovich was close by, watching her and making sure she didn’t fall over. Soldiers walked up and down as they cleaned the bodies of the dead off the streets. This was something that the city would take months to recover from.
Seeing another collection of people outside of a building, Oliver directed the group inside. From a simple observation, a large boulder was thrown from the impact site, crushing all those that were inside the building. Morale was non-existent. Upon entering the building under the direction of the few volunteers present, Jonah fell to his knees as he looked upon the crimson liquid that stained the boulder.
“What-” He choked out struggling to comprehend what laid before him.
Walking up to the mangled bodies and reaching out her hand, Ariel began to chant as the men watched in horror. “In the name of the Goddess of light, I ask thee to take these souls to their final resting place. A bright golden light emanated from the body parts. Mike watched in awe as the parts began to dematerialize into bright balls of light as they rose to the sky one-by-one. Walking up to the boulder and placing his hand on it, Mike felt a small amount of heat escaping the huge rock through his gloves.
“Who did this?”
That was the question on everyone’s minds.
Publicly Available Information: Information Brief 8 — Military Casualties:
5th Garrison Guard –
17 Knights K.I.A.
13 Knights M.I.A.
37 Soldiers K.I.A.
36 Soldiers M.I.A.
79 Wounded.
12th Mountaineering Corps –
5 Knights K.I.A.
23 Soldiers K.I.A.
43 Wounded.
1st Royal Guard Division –
7 Knights K.I.A.
41 Soldiers K.I.A.
25 Wounded.
Total:
130 Killed in Action.
49 Missing in Action.
147 Wounded.