AL KHAZAR
SENATE CHAMBERS
"What has happened?"
"The green men has been non-stop attacking our supply carts to aid our troops, and the attack on elbe has been a total failure! What are you doing your majesty?"
"He's right! Is the empire doomed?! We cannot win this war! We need to surrender!"
"We've lost almost 150,000 men! We cannot speed train anymore troops their performance is proving horrible in battle! We need more time to train them!"
"We dont have a choice zeku! The enemy is killing our forces too fast than we can replenish them!"
"We're running out of slaves for manual labor! We dont have enough farmers to maintain our farms and the blacksmiths cannot keep up resupplying our troops, our economy is slowly going down we need to do something!"
"SILENCE!" The king yelled in anger, his voice echoed through the silent room, the nobles and senators looked at him sitting on his throne awaiting for another word to come out of his mouth.
Molt gave a soft sigh, "i understand our situation.. we are in desperate times, and i still have not seen any news coming from the harkans, but i promise everyone they will come i am certain.."
"You said that once your majesty and yet they haven't come! We are turning skeptical and we need to have another plan!" A noble spoke out.
And then another, "the green men has massacred and taken our land, italica and elbe is now our enemy and soon more of our allies will follow their footstep we must do something quick!"
"I know.." the king said trying not to get the pent up stress get to him, "give me time to figure this out.. i promise.."
"THAT WILL NOT BE NEEDED FATHER!!" Zorzal's words echoed through the hallway.
Heavy armored knights forcefully opened the senate chamber's doors where zorzal walked inside with 4 slave servants holding his personal belongings, "father!" Zorzal raised his arm, "i have come for you today to reveal to you my greatest invention for war something that the harkans can be impressed by.."
"Is that so? Show me.." molt said.
Zorzal looked at the soldier behind his shoulder and made a gesture on his hand, the soldier then yelled orders at other soldiers who are not in view of any of the nobles and senators sight, but they heard one strong thud after another. And to their horror an ogre emerged out of the doors which too shocked the king, an ogre corrupted by dark magic with chains locked on almost everywhere on its body making sure it couldn't go away or even massacre the senators.
"This father is my weapon.. something that will finally defeat these damn.. marines.. or whatever they call themselves, they'll bow down to me and ill prove on how worthy i am to sit on your throne.." zorzal said confidently while a 10 foot monster stood behind him.
Molt was used to Zorzal's shenanigans but this takes it to the next level, they would have never expected for zorzal to actually use dark magic on his little experiment on creating superweapons but here they were face to face against a corrupted beast. The senators were in awe as something that big was obeying zorzal's orders as if it was loyal to him which kind of made some senators and nobles worried for their safety.
And that is because they all join a group of pro-peace faction consisting of military ex-generals who want to end the war against the U.S because they know it will all lead to imminent doom for the empire and nothing good will thrive from it. And it was lead by none other than marcuis casel, he was the one who has started this faction and the majority of the people in al khazar support them, and it didn't took long for the other faction who is pro-war to figure out.
They issued a warning to whoever senator or noble, or anyone who is a member of the pro-peace faction is to be severely punished as for prince zorzal's orders which the king has approved of since he was also a pro-war member. But that wasn't entirely true, in fact he was a pro-peace member but kept it a secret, he did so because he was close to loosing the rights to sit on the throne and rule the empire by zorzal his own son, but it wouldn't stop him from even punishing his own father when he realized he is a pro-peace and decided to advice everyone who is a member of the faction to stay silent and hidden especially casel who has not been seen for a while.
"These green men have doubted our power, but now they will regret it.. our empire is strong! Nobody can defeat it!" Zorzal raised his fist and a couple of the senates cheered with approval.
"My son, you have created yet again another monster for war, but I'm afraid our economy cant even produce lots of that.. whatever that thing is.. without the consequences of economic crisis and inflation of the market.." molt warned zorzal.
"It will not matter as once we have an army of these creatures we can retake control over our land and restore our empire!" Zorzal said.
The king remained silent because he knew he couldn't convince zorzal to back down his crazy planning he just needs to wait and see how will the green men deal with that ogre, but the answer was already given, they just didn't knew yet.
ITALICA
BARRACKS NO. 778
ALEX'S ROOM
"You want to what?" Alex exclaimed.
"Yes we need to... I couldn't say it any better.." piña said nervously.
"Piña.. you want my boys to step infront of the doorstep of the damn empire to meet your father?.... im gonna get killed! Me and my men are gonna get killed!" Alex said.
"I can take down an army if i needed to.." emily said.
"Shut up i know you can't.. you're just gonna look like an idiot.." alex said in return emily grunted.
"Alex.. i know its unusual for me to suddenly request you that but we really need to go.. i promise it wont be as dangerous as you think, i know my dad well.. so please, just please.." piña pleaded desperately ready to get on her knees and start begging desperate to save the empire.
"piña, we're driving into dangerous enemy territory, we wont make it back if our trip was unsuccessful.. im sorry.." alex said, he was dissapointed that he couldn't accept the offer but he knew the dangers they will be put up against so he had no choice.
"What is even your intentions on going there piña? You explained it to us that you cant go back to the empire since you are a traitor now for them.." simon said while leaning against the door frame on the barracks room.
"Theres a possibility we can achieve peace and stop this war.." piña said immediately taking the attention of alex's entire squad to piña, even alex turned back to face piña.
"What?" Alex clarified.
Piña nodded, "we're the only friendly al khazarians you all know, even though we are considered as a traitor i know my father will not think the same.. theres a chance he'll let us in and we will do the rest of the work.."
Alex shook his head, "thats not gonna be simple, we cant just get in our vehicles and head to al khazar so easily, that place has multiple active warzones and it is too risky to even cross and its possible right now theres a battle happening on an area of al khazar controlled borders.. we cant take the risk."
Alex then felt a hand on his shoulder and looking behind is simon, "unless we do something."
"Like what?" Alex looked at simon.
"You dont realize that the U.S didn't want this war in the first place even though everyone wanted it, they want to engage in a peace treaty rather than unnecessary bloodshed, so if you think the general wont issue to pull back their troops out of battle after hearing about a possible peace treaty then you are dead wrong.." simon explained.
Alex sighed, "yeah.. you have a point.. but let's just see what will happen, they wont believe in a peace treaty so easily so we need some good convincing, and i know who to start with.."
.
.
.
"Utter bullshit!" The colonel said, "a possible peace treaty? We wish.. how the hell are we suppose to engage a peace treaty after we killed like a hundred thousand of these damn khazarians and the only thing we're suffering from is the amount of ammo being used, dont make jokes on me lieutenant."
The colonel sat on his desk on his office after alex tried to convince him to let piña back to alnus to have a talk with the general, "colonel im serious if this works we can stop this war! Al khazar has probably been suffering alot now and has been weakened so this is probably a perfect time to have a peace talk with them."
"I am not letting you, your squad, and the princess to the empire, you're gonna return home looking like porcupines from the amount of arrows stuck on your body!" The colonel said.
Alex then tried arguing more, "Colonel i-"
"Colonel..." Piña interrupted him.
"Princess piña, hm.. i know what you're here for.. im sorry, we cant do anything about it, i dont want to send my men to a death zone. Its too much of a risk.." the colonel said, alex then translated it for her.
"Then I'll go myself.." piña said.
"She said she'll go by herse- wait what.." alex looked at piña which she looked at him.
"Alex, if you cant go with us then ill take my army and go by ourselves.." piña said.
"Princess.." the colonel stood up, "we cant let you go to the empire, that's a death wish.."
Alex translated and piña replied, "im sorry colonel, but i need to save my empire from annihilation.." she stormed off the office.
Alex and the colonel stared at each other, "what are you standing there for? Stop her!"
Alex rushed out of the office to catch up with piña who is already leaving the building, she started walking to italica to get her knights and her men to the empire. She was immediately stopped by her tracks by alex, "look.. piña, i know what you're feeling but we cant just risk letting you go free, you know your brother is hunting for you, so please for your safety just listen to us.."
"Alex, my home is in danger because of my brother, he will not stop from getting you and the others off this land, and you know it wont work you know you all have no choice but to end his ruling and that could put the empire, MY empire, into alot of trouble.." piña said.
"We know, but.. give us some time.. we'll figure this shit out we promise.." alex said trying to block her path.
"Theres no more time!" Piña then pushed alex away and started walking in a fast pace, "i dont know when will my brother take the throne but i know its not gonna be long, time is running out so i need to act quick!"
"Piña! You're gonna die!" Alex said.
Minutes has passed by between the two exchanging words, alex tries his best to reason with piña to not go to al khazar but piña already made her decision. Things got so heated that piña ordered her men to point their spears at alex to prevent him from following her, the surrounding marines then raised their rifles after they saw the lieutenant being threatened.
"No! Dont shoot for fucks sake!" Alex barked out, the marines looked at each other before lowering their guns at the spearmen.
They couldn't get near piña in anyway without harming any of her men since they were blocking their way. They all watched as piña with her knights and a hundred of her soldiers start getting on horse back and headed out of italica.
"Son of a bitch!" Alex then ran out looking at the cavalry going to the empire which worried him. Alex then started sprinting as fast as he catching the attention of simon and Jake.
"Why is he running?" Simon asked.
"I dont know.. go get the others.." jake said and simon started walking back in the barracks.
Alex then barged in the colonel's office, "she fucking got out.. shes headed to the empire.."
"SHE WHAT!?" the colonel exclaimed leaping out of his chair, "son of a bitch!" He grabbed his radio, "this is actual to all units on the frontline, the princess of al khazar has gone rogue I repeat the princess has gone rogue! Be on high alert with the princess dont let that woman die!!"
"What the fuck do we do?" Alex asked.
The colonel pointed his finger at him, "you, you go get your squad.. go find piña now.. ill report this to H.Q.." the colonel stormed off the office following alex.
.
.
.
"Where are we going???" Bozes asked to piña.
Piña gave a serious face, "to the empire.."
"What!? This so soon!?" Bozes said shocked.
"Princess you're gonna get us all killed! A hundred thousand men will be waiting for us on the gate! Where the hell is alex??" Grey yelled.
"They cant come!.. we're on our own.. but i promise you we wont die, and we cant go back.. they've probably already know where we are.." piña said with her heart beating faster and faster.
"Whos they?" Grey asked.
"My brother's soldiers.. " piña said which made grey and bozes nervous.
Back in italica helicopters from little birds to blackhawks were lifting off in an attempt to stop piña off her tracks. Alex and his squad got on the humvee's, "we need to go now.. gregory hit the gas we need to get piña immediately!"
"Copy that commander!" Gregory pressed on the gas pedal and the humvee started driving off with another humvee behind them where the rest of the squad was on.
Emily and jake were on the turrets to have clear view while they looked above seeing UH-1Y venoms helicopters are already passing by the convoy. "They're sending out an entire search team.." simon said.
"What did you expect? Its the damn princess for crying out loud! We cant let her die.. increase speed quickly greg!" Alex said looking out of the window to atleast see a glimpse of piña's cavalry group.
"Im trying! but theres alot of rocks in the damn road hang on for a bumpy ride!" Gregory pressed the gas harder its speed increasing while it bumped up and down due to the rocky terrain.
ALNUS
"The princess has what!!?" The general said loudly catching everyone's attention outside his office, "for fucks sake.. get every single helicopter to go find her! ill have the reapers patrol nearby the kingdom, do not let her die! I repeat! Do, not, let, her, die!"
"We're trying general, we need a helping hand!" The colonel said on the phone.
"Granted.. do your best to keep her breathing and kill anyone who tries to harm her.." the general placed the phone down.
Lieutenant mark was inside the office and he looked at the general, "general?"
General kyle let out an exhausted sigh, "get the jets running, you know what to do.."
"Affirmative.." mark then steps out the office to order the F-18's to find piña.
ALNUS AIRFIELD
OPERATION: FIND THE PRINCESS..
Two F/A-18 jets were on the runway on the airfield since it was the only two jets who are ready to fly since the rest were inside the hangar and still need some time to ready it up for takeoff.
"Tiger-1, Tiger-1, you are chosen to have this short but very important mission.. you're looking for a red haired girl.. followed her is a blonde female, brunette, and a male in his 50's.. i know its gonna be hard to tell but their hair color will stick out.. your objective is to protect them from enemy wyverns and enemy troops as best as you can, be on high alert with friendly helicopters and if possible.. stop them by their tracks.. god speed.." a voice said on the radio of the pilots of the hornets.
With the engines of the hornets slowly getting louder and louder and as fast as a blink of an eye it started increasing speed and took off the runway following the other hornet, "takeoff is a success.. on our way to find the princess.." tiger-1 said.
The citizens of the refugee village heard loud noises in the distance that slowly got louder and louder.
"Mom! Look!" A child points at the skies. In the people's awe two iron dragons passed by creating a deafening sound as it did, a strong gust of wind too followed since it was on low altitude.
Their altitude increased slowly from 1,000 feet, 2,000, 3,000 all the way up to 9,000 feet high. Occasionally Spinning around for fun and they can also gave a full view beneath them for a couple of seconds.
"You ready?" Tiger 2 said to tiger 1.
"Hell yeah im ready, time to kick some wyvern ass!.." tiger 1 replied.
The two hornets zipped through the air in amazing speed that no dragon can even reach, the pilots knew they need to get there quickly or else the princess's life might be at risk. They took turns swerving left an right while looking down on the ground to find piña.
Piña's cavalry group went into thick forestry obscuring view up above on the passing by helicopters which they heard, they went in slow speed trying not to expose them from the sun rays beaming down right beside them occasionally disappearing from the Venoms hovering above. Miraculously no one spotted them since the passing by helicopter squadron was going somewhere else to fight more imperial men and not finding piña nor her small army.
"The green men are everywhere.. are you sure its a good idea to go to the empire? They're this worried for us to go near it that its making me skeptical to go there.." bozes whispered.
Piña shushed her but decided to reply to her comment, "..just... Trust me.. okay? My father isn't that evil.. he'll let us and he'll stop my brother from getting to me.. i just want the nobles and senates to hear me out and having war with this kingdom is futile.. that's all i want to do, i dont care if they still view me as a traitor.. aslong as i told them the truth then it doesn't matter.."
Bozes replied with silence, piña knows she doesn't have any words to say so she signaled everyone that its time to head out of the forest they were hiding in. The entire group then gained speed as they reached the far ends of the forest where the sunlight was spotted, they made it out but they were not met by a plain field with no one in sight.. no..
Instead, they encountered face to face with an army of 5,000 of zorzal's troops that were sent to find princess piña, and she was standing infront of them clear as day which baffled the knight commander. They had a standoff 800 vs 5,000 an uneven match and to make it worse they have wyverns with them and a couple of imperial siege weapons and cavalry, they were outnumbered and outgunned there was a clear victory even though the battle hasnt even started but it will in a matter of seconds.
Grey unsheathed his sword, "princess.. what do we do?" He said nervous.
A bead of sweat formed on piña's forehead as she also doesn't know what to do, "i dont know.. theres too many we cant handle them all."
Hamilton then walked close to both of them with bow in hand, "then all hell will break loose.. we dont have a choice princess, and im not sure we'll make it out alive.."
"We need to turn back.." bozes stepped her horse couple of inches away, "its suicide to even try to fend off a giant army like that.. its useless they have wyverns and our arrows can barely do anything against those things.."
Piña inhaled a shaky breathe as she looked behind her, his men were well equipped but against an army of 5,000 then her men needs to have killed atleast 10 or 15 enemy units but considering these are zorzal's men then piña sure knows they've been through more combat than her soldiers. But she had no choice as behind her turned out to be more enemy soldiers, then to her right, then left.. they were surrounded..
What would she do? Against an army of almost 8,000 soldiers? If they fight them they will immediately surround them and the wyverns will have a blood feast on them. No other way out, piña could only pray on her mind that she will make it out of this alive, her and her knights alive, but their luck has ran too thin to even make it out of this battle alive let alone make it out in one piece.
Piña sighed pulling her sword out and her actions were enough for the others to know what she is gonna do, grey then tightly gripped his sword, "then its a battle.."
Piña nodded before turning to the rest of her soldiers, "alright everyone! I want all units with their shields to take infront and the rest hide behind them, we cannot break the formation or else it will be a kill frenzy.. i dont know where are the green men are but im unfortunate to say this we aren't gonna expect their arrival this time.. we're on our own.. so lets make this fight memorable to our ranks.."
Her soldiers immediately knew what to do and quickly formed a circular shield wall, they lept out of their horses, they have a higher ground against them since they were on horseback but they were more scared about the siege weapons and wyverns which can swoop them down any minute now.
"Hm.. the princess wants a fight.. then shall be it.. MEN! SHOW THESE TRAITORS HOW TO REALLY FIGHT! CHARGE!!"
Breaking off formation hundreds of men charged at the shield wall and hurdled themselves towards it, some were knocked down but quickly got back up and attacked those who managed to get in the shield wall. A couple then jumped inside and attacked the cavalry units but luckily they were far in reach with their short swords so it wasn't a problem for them to kill. They killed a hundred of men already and made piña slightly relieved that her soldiers are fighting as hard as they could possibly do, but her time in relief was blown away as a giant stake slammed through the shield wall making a big hole which enemy units started storming inside.
"They made it in!" Norma said while putting a sword through an imperial soldier's chest.
"Princess! We cant win! We're being outnu- HUAGH-" A young legionnaire's words were cut off by an arrow on the head.
"Damn it! How many casualties??" Piña said worried.
"Commander bozes has been severely injured! We cannot win! We're surrounded! And there's no way out were all doomed- HAULLGH-" An arrow pierced through the soldier's neck killing him instantly.
"Woah!" Piña then covered herself with a shield just in time 2 arrows pierced the shield. She looked around as her men were mercilessly butchered by zorzal's troops, she felt a sense of hopelessness, she failed her soldiers and regretted everything putting her knights in danger for such a futile attempt to make contact with al khazar knowing it isn't going to work so easily but yet she did what she wanted to do not thinking about the safety of others.
"I'm sorry grey.." piña said standing in the middle of the massacre, grey stood beside her before stabbing an enemy on the neck, he looked at piña who stared blankly on the distance.
"Princess.." he said before an arrow hits his shoulder, "agh!" He cried in pain before hiding behind his shield.
"..i.. failed as a commander of the rose knights... Please forgive me.." piña said with her voice loosing tone every word she says.
"Hey.. dont be tough on yourself.. son of a bitch!" Grey stabbed an enemy on the chest, "you were a great general.. we all believe in you, its not your fault that you wanted to end this war and save the empire.. dont give up piña!"
Piña showed silence to grey only looking at him, but before she could say anything an arrow then pierces on the side of her stomach which made her fall off her horse. "Piña!" Grey said leaping off his horse and rushed to her and gave her cover from the incoming arrows.
"Its the end.." piña losses hope as she noticed two wyverns bolting towards them on the sky ready to devour her and grey.
Grey held his sword tightly, "ill not let you touch her you damn flying beast! Bring it on!"
The wyverns roared, but in a sudden flash one of it exploded, then the other one aswell which the noises were loud enough to stop the battle and made it silent, not entirely silent.. they heard distant noises which didnt sound like a wyvern or any other creature.. but it was the sounds of two incoming F/A-18 fighter jets passing by the battlefield.
"Its the green men!" Hamilton said cheerfully.
Two viper helicopters came to distance behind the forest, "enemy units spotted, clear to fire?"
"Yep, fire at will!"
"Alright! Rain fire!!"
The rotary canon decimated a good handful of the enemy units in an instant which terrified the enemy upon realizing it was the marines. Multiple marines emerged behind the forest and immediately engaged at the enemy, they already know who is who after so many battles with zorzal's troops. Units dropped one by one while Venom helicopters passed by and fired at the cavalry units and infantry with their mounted machine guns while their rocket pods decimated the enemy ranks.
The siege weapons were decimated by rockets raining down like a storm from vipers and venoms, the combined firepower of marine infantry and aerial units were too much that the enemy immediately retreated in fear as their numbers were cut to small amounts in seconds of their arrival, the knight commander was hit by a barrage of gunfire and the enemy was in disarray and ran away from sight as best as they could. What only left of the battle was the dust filled air and piña with her surviving army which there were only around 300 of them, most were injured severely.
They were relieved for their rescue but they weren't expecting the tone of the marines when they screamed at them, "Do not fucking move!! As for the general's orders.. you are not allowed to go within active warzones princess piña and you violated that order!" The marine said who is non other than alex who has his gun pointed at them, "piña i know what you're trying to do but we cant just let you go like that because you're an important figure for us, we cannot let you die no matter the circumstances, so please for the love of god just cooperate!"
Alex's words flowed in piña's ears but she gave silence as a reply since blood was aggressively pouring out of the arrow wound she has, "...ugh.. alex.. i... Apologize.." she started loosing consciousness as she was loosing blood, her vision slowly blurred as multiple marines started to attend her including alex.
"Fuck.. she passed out.. but she'll live if we treat her back in alnus quickly.." a medic marine said.
"Then get to it! Dont let her die no matter what.." alex said looking around the dead bodies scattered around. He noticed piña's knights were injured heavily, grew having an arrow sticking out of his shoulder, "hey.. uh.. grey.. attend piña to your trip back to alnus.. follow them and they'll give you a ride.."
Bozes then walked to alex and demanded, "lieutenant! You're taking the princess away again? Can you not just treat her inside italica? We have enough doctors to treat her let us do the work, you already did the saving.."
"Listen.. you've caused us more trouble.. so i advice you to not complain anymore.." alex said straight to her face that was menacing she had to take a step back a little frightened by Alex's change on attitude.
Alot of Venoms touched down around them as they started escorting heavily injured individuals back to alnus to be treated by proper medical care while the minor injured was only taken to italica to be treated by the medics. CH-53E Super Stallions carried loads and loads of injured soldiers of piña they didn't even leave the horses behind. The general, and the colonel both are having a vein popping out of their forehead because of what piña was thinking, her? Going towards al khazar? To have a peaceful talk? And shes considered a traitor on the empire? That's a definite death wish for anyone that is not brain dead.
Alex stayed silent with a dead expression, he was so done for this day, the princess has caused alot of equipment to be sent out just to find her and they also wasted alot of ammo to get her out of the battle she started accidentally, and clearly alex was one to be blamed here by the higher ups and he knows damn well when he is brought to the press meeting he's gonna be accused of risking the princess's life which that'll cause even more headaches for the poor lieutenant that he could just punch a hole through the earth.
He just hoped back on the Venom helicopter while the rest did the dirty work including his squad and he just wanted to clear his mind off some stuff, "she almost died... Fuuuuck... Ugh.. the general is gonna want an answer.. can this day get any fucking worse.." he throws his towel on the other side of the helicopter.
He finished his sentence right before the hatch of the helicopter closes as it started lifting off and headed back to italica, alex stared at the distance of the forest and greenery and birds flying by. He knew he will be greeted back at italica with a screaming colonel at his face, but he couldn't shake the thought of what piña said before she escaped out of italica.
"Peace talk huh?..... Hm.. interesting.." he whispered...