2 hours later.
Meanwhile, in Big Meadow, while Zlocan activity is relatively low, the minimal presence of military forces from Humans make it a proper landing place of operations for Zlocan troops into American territory. Walkers, Knights, and tanks are rolling in for action and in preparation for their next operation.
But even then, the warriors of their nation can still be found in some capacity.
Hidden in the bushes, six figures are laying prone, observing a landing Zlocan ship with four troops observing.
One is a man with dark skin, and a pompadour worthy of a cool guy, in spite of a visible scar on his right cheek. Wearing a long purple trench-coat and with a backpack, he seems like a man who's ready for anything.
"Sae Jackie, ye think thes is the hot stuff we expect?" another figure says, with a thick, feminine, Scottish accent.
The man's name is Jackson Bairman, and if you expect the best, he can come up with it.
"Ah, Luce...you always know that the hot stuff comes with a great reward for taking out ugly mugs in here," Jack replies with his deep, smooth voice.
Alongside him is Lucy Henderson, a former journalist, and photographer of various magazines around the world. With her ginger hair, pink lush eyes and medium weight body and a bag with a handful of knives inside, she can truly provide the tricks beneath her sleeve.
"Ah, don't be hasty! It's not like we can all grab it in one go, or unless you truly own something incredible inside you, right?" Lucy replies back while punching him in the arm. Unfazed, he soon sprouts an amused smirk.
"Heh, you surely still think of it, don't you?" Jackson says.
"Listen to her, man, you might get the proper sense in knowing what to do in situations like this, former soldier or not." Another figure wearing a dirty and wrapped police uniform steps in.
"You think so, Murph?" Jack asks the man. The latter groans in response.
"You and your bleeding mouth..." he replies.
"Well no shit, that's the best we know of him," another man says. He has dark rugged hair, wearing a dark blue leather jacket and with a double-barreled shotgun near his holster.
"Maxie-boy, you that ain't the half of him by now," Luce replies back as she pointed her binoculars at him. This makes him scoff.
"Well, there may be an extra reward if you behave like proper children," another figure says. This time a woman with brown hair and blue jumpsuit, with a huge flamethrower next to her.
"Sure thing Ellen, but you should know that I'm not tolerant of sugar as you think," Jackson snarks back.
"Boys as usual..." the final figure replies. She is also a woman with brown, curly hair and wearing long, white robes.
Luce only chuckles in response to her annoyed tone.
"Oh Laiya, I was wondering if you could bring the fun right now," Jackson replies.
"OK, that sure is enough my buddies, keep mouthing off like that and we may spend the next weeks transporting crap to their prisons," Lucy says, this time with an annoyed tone and raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah right...well, where was I? Well, we know that our movements in this war zone are downright limited and thus we can't win like this. But if there's one person I can rely on to save our lives and turn the tide, it's a man located near the border on the northern part of this state. Government forces have reunited with others to form some form of alliance to take back our lands," Jackson says while Lucy's taking photos of the group stationed on the ground, having a conversation with a shadowy figure.
"And right now, we need to gather enough Intel in the occupied zones so they can get the idea of what's going on."
"Now that you think of it, maybe this one group may bring something interesting, but we're not seeing anything that horrible yet," Lucy says.
"Isn't an invasion that horrible enough to you?" Murphy replies as he glares at her.
"Well yeah...but more than that, there's the need for a special weapon to get public support on our side; Evidence of more actions. One of the oldest rules of war journalism by the book and you should know every inch of it, ya got it?" Lucy says while still looking at Murphy with her binoculars.
"Well if you insist..."
She then turns back to the Zlocan group, she starts to frown as she notices something she couldn't expect.
"Oh dear..."
"What is it, Luce?" Jackson says, this time with a more concerned tone.
"I see them bringing up a group of prisoners from a cargo truck, appear to be civies, four of them to be exact...Oh no, they're being strapped by a collar of sorts in their necks..." Lucy says, her tone becoming more concerned as well.
As they do that, they also handcuff the civilians together, all while the shadowy figure approaches them. It's none other than Raven himself.
"By deciding to run away, you've decided to become part of the weak. One should know that a true warrior is one that knows how to do the job and what's the right action to take. If you honestly believe that rejecting your second chance was the solution, then you'll be dead wrong." He then turns to the Zlocan Knight. "Do it."
The Knight salutes him as he proceeds to push a button on the collar that ties the civilians together.
A beeping sound comes from the collars. The civilians tense up in fear.
Max tries to grab his shotgun and bolt into action over such execution of ones who have nothing to do with the war but Lucy pulls him down.
"Hold it! You don't want us to get caught because of your insistence on going all hero. There's nothing we can do for now," Lucy says solemnly as she records what's happening.
Looking closely, it appears that nothing is happening among the civilians.
Not at least until the beeping sound goes faster.
Without warning, the four heads of the civilians explode from the force of the collar itself. Soon dropping dead to the ground while the headless remains gush out the blood from the neck.
"Bastards..." Jackson utters as he clenches his gun.
And yet it can't get any worse for Max himself.
Flaring his nostrils heavily, his eyes as wide they can be and shaking extremities nothing could be coming for him right now.
"Max? Max I understand that you-" Lucy tries to reassure him but...
"They took many of my countrymen already, my family, my friends, everyone...but now... I will kill those sons of bitches!"
He shouts at the top of his lungs as he soon stands up and grabs his M16A4 rifle with grenade launcher and shoots a shell to the position of the group.
The Zlocan group then spots the source of the loud voice but before they could react, the shell hits near a handful of them and they are thrown back by the force of the explosion. Even if it didn't kill them, they still get injured from the strike.
"Guess we don't have any choice then!" Jack says he brandishes a second M16A4 rifle with a laser scope, taking cover near the rock as he covers the fire for the team.
All while Max proceeds to fire in all directions at the group, forcing Lucy and the others to stand up and try to hold Jackson back to no avail.
The Zlocan troops then follow the trace of the attackers and proceed to fire their blasters at them.
"Oi, he told you to keep calm, ya dafty!" Lucy yells while taking cover from the laser bolts.
"And what?! carry on while letting others die and suffer beyond recognition?! Hell no!" Max yells back.
"We have no time left, let's move!" Laiya says as she and the others pull out their guns and start firing back to the troops and dodging as many bolts as they can.
Jackson manages to hit some of the troops, but many are still coming.
And knowing he's getting low on ammo, given that the rest is in the bag, he too now runs while taking cover alongside the rest.
Running as fast they can, they begin to outrun the Zlocan troops giving chase and being lead by Raven himself.
It's no easy task to do, so they all soon split up to distract them.
Murphy, who quickly twirls his SIG Sauer P226, proceeds to fire at the Zlocan Knights while taking cover from a tree.
From every blast that grazes him, he fires back as much as he can. "God-damn it!" he says as he finds the ammo near the pouch in his jacket, "Ge-"
But before he can continue, he sees that the Zlocan troops stop firing, almost as if they ran out of ammo or energy.
Trying to get out of cover while aiming his gun, he gets grabbed by a hand and tackled to the ground. It's Raven, who is now straining him.
"Policemen...the ones supposed defenders of the public trust and law, and yet your kind did the opposite. So in the name of the Zlocu, it's time for your dues."
Raven then holds Murphy and reveals him in the open, turning the Zlocan Knights who noticed Raven beforehand. Raven allows him to do the work so he can prepare a signal from him.
Murphy tries to fight him off but Raven kicks him in the right leg, causing him to wince as it gets dislocated from the force.
Raven then raises his closed fist, later opens the palm, indicating their signal as he walks away from Murphy.
They start firing at Murphy with many of the laser bolts that they have, this time larger, hitting various parts of his body while he screams in pain.
A few seconds last, but eventually, the Zlocans stop firing their heavy loading. With their last shot, it leaves Murphy as a limbless person with smoking holes around the body.
"One down," he says before moving out to the next target.
On the other side, Max takes his double-barreled shotgun as fires at the Zlocan Knights, and like Murphy, he too takes cover from the fire.
"Those hellish bastards, you want some of this!?" Max says as he leaps sideways and proceeds to shot the Zlocan Knights who are after him, flawlessly hitting two of them.
Max then stands proud of his actions while reloading his shotgun.
"Many people these days just don't learn...they'll see the wrath of the kindred ones!"
Then, a blade pierces through his jaw, causing a handful of blood to gush out from it. Said blade is golden-looking, all coming at the hands of Dakrin Cavendish himself, who stood there while he was distracted with his bravado.
"Well, I guess you haven't learned in paying attention," Dak snarks.
Dakrin then slices up the jaw and proceeds to impale Max's cranium. Then, he detracts the blade from the cranium, causing Max to drop dead. Dakrin can only chuckle at the unfortunate event and then proceeds to walk away.
In another part of the place, Ellen's trying to hold off the enemy. She does so by firing her flamethrower at them, Blocking their sight and path while burn any of them.
She does so while running both left and right, holding off as much as she can while keeping the enemy at bay.
It appears that she's doing well, as so far, nothing is hitting her, likely from the spreading flames.
She then tries for another circling around the area but then notices a shadowy figure near the fire.
Ellen then attempts to unleash the flames once more, but this time, the flames are then stopped mid-air.
All done by the figure extending their hand.
Said figure is none other than Yamja herself, who's smirking in amusement for the "primitive" use of such weapon with the element of fire.
"Pfff, are you, Humans, really that simplistic?"
"What the hell do you mean by that!?"
Yamja answers by pushing the flames back at her at full force, scorching her apart in a fiery inferno surrounding her body.
Ellen tries to put down the flames, but the heat makes it too unbearable to contain it. She then drops dead, with her scorched body being the only thing left, almost unrecognizable.
For Laiya, she holds her ground while shooting her enemies with her Desert Eagle. She is shooting each of the nine-round cartridges contained with the gun. Surprisingly, she manages to shoot her enemies in spite of her inexperience.
She lets out a sigh of relief, believing she's off the hook now.
"Funny, I can tell the luck you have with the gun, at least from one like you who hasn't seen any real combat yet, or even at all," a female voice says. This time from Jane Worren herself.
Laiya reacts and aims her gun at her. But before she can realize it, she forgot the number of bullets she fired, and now it stands empty while staring at her as she trembles.
"That's an IMI Desert Eagle with a .357 Magnum cartridge, and you've had your nine."
Jane pulls her Walther P99 gun and quickly shoots Laiya in her chest, causing her to drop to the ground. She then tries to crawl back to safety while holding her wound in check, trying to stop the bleeding.
Unfortunately, Jane saw what was coming, proceeding to shoot her in the back. This time, the body stays lifeless, while blood oozes to the ground. Jane walks away once more, this time unloading the cartridge and checking the number of bullets she has left.
Now Lucy's almost by herself, but even so, she can hold her ground pretty well. Using her quick perception of the surroundings, she manages to throw her knives to the enemies she sees while taking cover as well.
Quickly hiding near a tree, she observes the surroundings around her and finds the pattern in the enemies shooting her.
Almost five or four, she recognizes what she sees.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she then pulls a pair of knives from her bag and then throws at two Zlocan Knights in the open. She then leaps to the other tree the knives impact the two knights chasing her.
Noticing the lack of fire, she lets out a small chuckle of relief while walking near the corpses to pull the knives from the affected areas.
"Poor boys, they miss the point of this as usual..." she mutters to herself as she searches for Jackson. But as she returns to her task to find him, it makes Lucy turn to her behind to see something she never wants to see. It's Raven himself. He emerges from the obscured landscape once more, this time catching Lucy by surprise as she steps back while trembling.
"It seemed we're missing another piece, but compared to you...you seem the penitent one for us. If you want to live, please tell us what you and your colleagues have been hiding from us."
"Go to hell!" she shouts as she pulls one of her knives.
Then, her body stops moving, as she detects she can now only move her eyes and head. Wondering why it's happening to her as she tries to keep her posture steady.
She then notices why.
It's Yamja using her dark arts once more to paralyze her almost completely.
Dakrin and Jane emerged from the other sides as well, surrounding the poor Scottish lady as well.
Biting her lips, breathing irregularly, Lucy never wanted to have this on her.
Raven then walks next to her, who then grabs a mini syringe and stabs her in the neck, causing her to wince in pain before passing out.
"So, we're gonna kill this bitch or what?" Dakrin says as he sharpens his sword.
"The others may already be dead, and we need to extract the secrets of what this secret base is," Jane replies.
Raven then observes an assault ship arriving in the area, ready to pick up the Inquisitors and a handful of the surviving Zlocan knights.
"Inquisitors, mission accomplished," Raven says as he carries Lucy on his back while the others follow suit. Carefully carrying the body, he enters inside and puts Lucy in one of the seats. He later detaches two wires coming from his chest and wraps it around Lucy, covering it around her chest up to the ground of the ship near the seat
Unbeknownst to them, they underestimated the chance of survival for the former soldier.
Jackson himself runs to the distance after killing four Knights as he made use of his stealth in the shadows, his team nowhere in sight, he must find them.
"Murph, Layia, Ellen...Max, respond damn it!" He shouts as he continues running. That is until he notices the ship lifting away. With his long eyesight, he watches the fear he didn't want to see. Lucy, held captive as the ship's door remain open for Raven and the rest to remind Jackson of his failure.
"No...No...!" Jackson starts to give chase at the leaving transport ship while firing wildly at it with his rifle. All it does is ricochet around it.
"Lucy!" Jackson yells at the top of his lungs, all eager in trying to recover his colleague. But it is too late, the ship takes off right when he appeared, all while leaving to safety.
Standing paralyzed from the sight, Jackson throws his bag away in a fit of frustration. He shouts loudly as he kneels to the ground, now aware that the others are dead as well, and now someone close to him has been captured.
"Why...I have tried so hard to protect others from peril...to ensure a better survival. But now this?" He punches some nearby rock with his right hand while stomping the ground with his left one.
"Damn the Zlocu, damn the traitors! The things they have done, what happened today, for my team, my supposed second chance! Oh, why!?" He punches the rock one more time, breathing heavily as gets a hold of it, traces of red cuts around his hand emerge. His eyes start look a bit red while looking down and attempting to breathe normally.
"Why? Is suffering all I will know...?" he mutters to himself, his voice as shaky yet doing his best to stay firm.
Nothing but silence, all to keep himself calm.
Soldiers are always told to sacrifice everything they know if they want their mission to succeed.
But, is it that necessary?
After a period of mourning, Jackson stands up once more. Now with a determined yet also restraining expression while gripping his hands.
They may have taken everything from him, but if he wants to, then he may try to take his new skills to those wronged him and his comrades.
Snatching his bag as he gets up, he departs to another place, ready to prepare himself for another day.
Another day to start anew. To recover what he lost.