[1245 hours, Italica's neighboring forests, Empire, Special Region]
All the bands of deserters and bandits around the region gathered around their camp for lunch and to weight this morning's fruitful loot.
They've really struck gold by attacking that convoy of villagers going to Italica and probably their easiest catch too, all what the bandits had to do was to follow them until they parted away from the armed looking folks wearing green and the apostle of Emroy, after that they were as vulnerable as a virgin in the slums of the imperial capital.
For this occasion, they decided to celebrate with many barrels of ale and dozens of roasted boars while boasting their happiness by chanting and dancing around the fire camp with their horrible mugs stretching wide perverted smiles.
Standing tall in the middle of the festivities was the leader of the band chugging a whole gallon of beer all by himself before digging his bad looking teeth inside the waist of grilled pork until he was interrupted by one of his men next to him.
"He boss! Look at wut me n' de boys found snooping arawnd de supplies!"
The bandit gave a toothless smile as he dragged the chain in his hand forward and pushed the two tanned men laying on the ground with a metal leash around their necks, the two fellows looked incredibly bizarre with their full body tattoos and their skimpy leather skirts.
The two men slowly lifted their heads to the bandit chief, displaying the tribal symbols on their faces, and spew enraged slur in an unknown language before being forcibly reminded to look down with a kick to the head.
"Hm, the fuck does a bunch of tribal do 'round here? Last time I saw these kinds of people was outside of this godforsaken country! I wonder how these two passed Imperial customs…" Asked the chief looking down at the two tribal like they were piles of shit.
"Dunno boss, whatcha we do wit dem?"
Suddenly, one of the tribal pushed his head forward with such incredible strength that it startled the bandit and left him go the grip on the chain, after that the savage bounced on the leader trying to mow one of his legs only to earn a swift kick to the rib, immediately incapacitating him.
The chief of the bandits looked down at the tribal disgusted by the white puddle the animal puked in front of his feet, still, he had to admit that his strength surprised him, he gave a small grin.
"These two may be a bunch of jackals but they seem quite strong, knuckleheads like these are in higher demand than the regular slave since the Imperial army lost most of its forces at Alnus Hill, put 'em with the rest of the villagers, we'll take them to the nearest slave market tomorrow morning."
"Aight boss, as ye wan-"
*BOOOOOOOOOOM*
The two individuals were both blown away by the sudden blast behind them hitting the fire camp in a splash of dirt and unsuspicious criminals, hopefully, none of them were hurt as they clumsily stood on their feet.
But they were soon met with the sight of the two tribal, running away from their grasp, the bandit and his chief attempted to chase them, but they were stopped by the flock of panicked bandits running around as confused as them, soon followed by the deafening roar of thunder hitting the camp, but it wasn't raining.
"Oi boss, watshappenin-"
Before he could finish his sentence, a hole carved through the bandit's skull, a hole wide enough to let the horrified chief see through at the dozens of beiges wearing individuals popping out of the density of the forest and assaulting the camp with strange spears of steel breeder of fire bolts.
The leader hurriedly ducked down from the bolts barely whistling above his head and started crawling, the only thing he put his mind on was to find a place to hide until the carnage stopped.
He kept crawling like the truly disgusting maggot that he is until he was surprised by the bursts of fire bolts being replaced by red and green glowing spears piercing through the chief's men like butter, then his path was blocked by a green puddle melting in front of him.
He roared in terror while backing away from the green liquid after that he noticed the small bits of ribs and bones melting inside the acidic matter, he turned toward the source of the lightning spears and came face to face with five massive golems of iron holding weapons he never saw in his entire life.
The man stood up and aimlessly ran away, his face shrinking in pure terror as he looked at his men being no match against whatever kind of hellish forces this is, all the morons who attempted to attack one of these people was met with either bolts or spears of light riddling their limped corpses like nets.
Where does this army of all hell come from?
They couldn't be from the Empire, since during his recent days of soldiering, the man never met or knew of this kind of powerful armies unless they were some kind of secret forces, but why would they care about such worthless ruffians like him and his band rather than the enemy at Alnus Hill.
Unless these people are the famous enemy of Alnus Hill who put him and so many other of his men unemployed, then if that's the case, they were completely unmatched against them!
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when a person suddenly tripped him and left him to eat the mud out of the ground, the chief looked up at this person ready to stab him until his fierce glare melted into cowardice when he saw the tall intimidating silhouette with its two red glowing eyes hovering above him.
This is it, there is no possible way he'll come out of this alive, well then, he will definitely not fall without a fight and just taking one of these bastards with him to the afterlife is enough for him.
The man clumsily stood up to face his opponent and withdrew his glaive while the man in front of him only kept staring at him with his red glare and his hand rested on a small wand located on his right waist.
The scoundrel rushed at him weapon drawn, but he sure as didn't expect the swift left step the masked man did to dodge his attack and especially the following right hook plunging the criminal's nose deep inside his face and pushing him a few steps back.
"Ba-Bastard!" The rascal cursed with his blood slipping through the hand covering his face before he attempted a diagonal slash only to be easily dodged as the first one, in retaliation the masked man kicked his opponent's knee bending it and forcing the bandit to crouch on the ground.
*TUTUUUN… TUTUTUTUUUN…*
Next thing he knew, the bandit chief found a weird taste of metal inside his mouth before he realizes the thin barrel chugged to the inners of his throat, the last thing he heard was a deafening blast vibrating his ear-drums followed by a swift excruciating pain at the back of his neck, then complete darkness.
[0645 hours, West Commonwealth command center, Empire, Special Region]
"Wounded? Cripples? Dead?"
"Fortunately, none. But their large numbers overwhelmed us and they've got the chance to wreck our base as you saw coming here…"
The Courier left a relieved sigh slip through his mouth as his down the chair he was sitting, while news of the bandit attacking their base with double the forces than before perturbed him, he was at least glad that they've could defend themselves without him being around.
Suddenly, he put a hand on his forehead as he hissed at the pain banging the inside of his bullet-ridden brain. He walked during the entire night to get to the West-C base, it only made sense that he needed some sleep. While he preferred coming back with a vehicle, the JSDF would have already blown up the car with a rocket launcher before he even left the dirt road…
"You really need to take some rest son; we can handle this." Advised the Enclave Remnants' leader with a worried look, the Courier declined the advice with a wave and a tired half smile.
"Not until I take care of this bandit problem first, I'll just tell House to inject me with a couple of ounce of caffeine to my bloodstream and I'll be wide awake."
"You'll be wide dead actually…" Added the businessman, the degraded speakers not fully revealing his sarcastic tone.
"The forests are so riddled with bandits that our scouts can't even step in without being harassed by muggers and thieves, heck there are even reports that some of the Burned Man's Dead Horses were captured…" the head paladin Hardin explained while swiping the holographic map displayed in front of the four men to his right and pointing at the dense forests present in the center of the display.
"It seems like not only did the conflict between the Japanese and the Imperial Army breed new criminals in the region, but all the plague of the country gathered there to make easy loot."
"Then what are we waiting for to wipe them out?" Jumped the general crossing his arms "It's not like we lack in manpower after the recent redeployments…"
"General, the problem isn't about the number, I know the NCR has plenty of young men to deliver, but against who were dealing it." Followed Mr. House "We're talking mostly about deserters, veterans of armies and probably skillful technicians, not only that but we are going to attack in their own turfs, who knows what they're preparing for us."
"They only got swords and spears at best, so, I guess we're set huh? What do we call this? Ethnic cleansing?" Darkly joked the Courier crossing his arms, nobody laughed at his dumb joke besides General Craig, who playfully replied to him with a disturbingly dark smile.
"Come on Courier, we are not Nazis, after all, call this more of a 'Cultural cleansing'."
[0856 hours, Alnus Hill, Empire, Special Region]
"What do you mean he got away"
"Well, how can I explain this… he kinda took us by surprise and it was dark, so we couldn't get him."
"How the fucking hell can one man kick the ass of five highly trained soldiers and get away from the rest?!"
"Well sir, he's no rookie, the bastard is knowns to be a highly trained professional…"
"Oh god…" Sighed Itami's commander after hearing the ridiculous event that struck his team, the poor man really doesn't know how to report this without angering the head general.
And Itami didn't even mention the whole hostage-taking back at the village, that would just straight up fire him.
"Okay that's it, you are dismissed lieutenant, just get the hell out of my face…"
"Yes sir, very sorry sir…" Itami sheepishly repeated while backing away from the commander's desk, all this while constantly bowing down until he exited the office which prompted him to lay on the door and gasp in exhaustion.
"He gave you a very tough earful, huh?" The first lieutenant turned to his right where he saw Mari approaching him with a smile on her face, he stood up from the door and faced her with a dejected look in response.
"Yeah, I was lucky he didn't choke me to death…" While he wasn't saying it as a joke, the female medic still giggled at his sentence.
"Well, we probably shouldn't have tried to arrest 'him'…"
"Ow, weren't you the one who begged us to give him a ride or something? What was that? You grew close to him while we weren't watching or what?"
Kurokawa noticed the harsher tone and the frowned eyebrows her superior gave, while his reaction was justified, it wasn't her entire fault if he ran away and broke one of the soldier's nose.
"Maybe you shouldn't have given the order in the first place, and please, I was keeping my distances, we were just doing small talks while he helped me treat the injured."
"We don't do small talks with terrorists and war criminals, It's under our guidelines to trace and apprehend any individual linked to the surprise attack of that night."
"You know he's a terrorist and a war criminal just because you and the rest of the base chose to call him like that, he's not really that bad if you don't point a gun in him." The woman's voice slightly increased in harshness without her realizing it.
While she already knew that he was an enemy and also responsible of the surprise attack, the woman saw in him something far different when he was treating the wounds of that little girl, a glow in his eyes only she could distinguish since it's her job to help people in need.
"The scars and wounds on my face prove me otherwise, I swear to god if somebody hears you right now you are so going into trouble, why are you defending this prick for Christ's sake?!"
This is where their little argument turned into full-scale yelling, slowly attracting the attention of anybody passing around the corridors and inside the offices.
"Because he helped us defeat that dragon? And because he helped me save those people? Ow, and he saved your head from being kicked by a horse! That's why!"
"And you think he was doing it just because he's suuuch a 'nice guy', huh?!"
"Yeah! Maybe… I don't know! And why would we go through the trouble of risking his life and wasting his supplies of 'steam-pack' on a bunch of random civilians if it was just fake?!"
"Because he wants to trick you! You moron! It is just a scheme of his to get you closer to him, just so he can backstab you in the end! Do you want to end in a body bag too?" Itami's toned reached sky-high fury as he stepped closer to the woman, plunging his reddened stare inside her eyeholes.
Just after he spilled all his anger that the lieutenant finally noticed the truly terrified stare Mari was giving to him, just before realizing he was nearly going to choke her neck with both hands.
The lieutenant immediately stepped back in intense embarrassment while mentally scolding himself for bursting out at such a gentle woman as Mari Kurokawa.
"I'm sooooo sorry, I-I didn't mean to call you a moron, it's just that… I-"
"No, it's not your fault it's mine. And you are absolutely right I really shouldn't have lowered my guard and talked to him so deliberately like that, I'm the one who infringed the rules" Apologized back Kurokawa as she was as ashamed as the lieutenant for letting herself go like that, but Itami wasn't fully accepting her excuses and kept apologizing again which only prompted her to apologize back.
"Sorry about what? I could hear both of your voices from outside of the goddamn building!"
"Shino! What are you doing here!" Itami jumped in fear after noticing the small brunette standing behind him.
"I just came to tell you that we prepared the shelters and the baths for the refugees…"
"Oh right, cool! Now I can finally relax with some hot sauna, the garrison's showers started to feel too cold"
"Wait! Where are you going!" Shino forcefully grabbed the fleeing general's shirt and dragged his confused ass in front of her. "Weren't you supposed to fill some paperwork?"
"Yeah, shit I forgot…" All joy and enthusiasm in Itami's face crumbled into misery as he slowly staggered to his office while uttering a long-depressed moan.
"What a child seriously" Blurted the brown-headed petite with a glare before looking back to the combat medic. "Why were you two arguing about?"
Mari jumped at Shino's question before starting to look around mumbling for a response.
"Ah! Well, nothing really interesting frankly!" She then paused for a second before questioning the short woman. "Hey, I want to ask you, what do you think of the Courier?"
"A fucking prick!" Yelled the brunette from the top of her throat, shortly surprising the nurse.
"Why-Why?"
"What do you mean why?! Fucker tricked us and made us look dumb in front of everybody in the village!"
Shino genuinely couldn't contain the disdain she felt toward that man, oh god she never hated something as much as this in her entire life!
"Uuuuuuuugh, if I ever stumble upon that guy again! Oh my fucking god I'm going rip off that helmet of his, and shove it so far up his stinky a-"
[Meanwhile in the women's bath at the refugee camp…]
"Ahhhh… This is sooo great… I can't believe they managed to build a bath here…"
Rory left a gasp of delight slip from her mouth as she slowly left her head sink in the steaming water, all while in the company of Lelei and Tuka taking a bath as well.
"This and the food already make this place five stars in my book, the 'Jee-eeS-Dee-eeF' really outdid themselves with such hospitality!" Rory continued before spreading her body to float graciously on the surface of the water.
"The what?" Asked Tuka widening her eyes at the floating demi-god.
"The JSDF…" Replied Lelei with her usual monotone voice, note the perfect pronunciation. "I heard they come from the Gate and from a country called 'Japan', in fact, there is an entire world we don't know about on the other side of it…"
"Interesting…" Grinned the apostle at the blue-haired girl's words while the blonde elf stayed dumbfounded with a small "Wow..." escaping from her wide opened mouth before she continued.
"They sure have a powerful army, defeating a red dragon isn't an easy task, and they did it with just a shot single shot of their… whatever it is called, a staff of fire?"
Lelei nodded.
"They seem to be highly technologically advanced too… I went around their base and saw those very thin illuminating mirrors that do stuff when you touch them, I asked one of the personnel and they told me that it gave to them many information and tools like a clock or a notebook, there was even that thing called 'Inter-nett' or something like that…"
"Peep boi!"
"Wh-What?" Tuka and Lelei both glanced at Rory once again with a confused look while the apostle depicted a wide proud smile.
"They call them 'Peep boi' right? The 'Curry-er' got something like that…"
"Curry…er? Who's that?" Asked Lelei which Rory promptly replied by creating some kind of mask with her hand.
"You know the guy with the spooky helmet and who speaks in a very weird language? The one turned out to be a freakin hottie?" Lelei widened her blue eyes then nodded after that she recognized the person the demigod was talking about.
"That strange fellow, his outfit and equipment seemed similar but vastly different than the one used by the JSDF, I don't know why but he doesn't seem to be friend with the JSDF, nor does he like them, probably a criminal within their world, but they worked together to defeat the dragon so this really confuses me…"
"That person! Where is he?!"
The two females were suddenly startled by Tuka's unexpected jump of mood, the elf soon realized that and backed away while looking down at the water slightly embarrassed.
"I'm sorry, but he ran away with one of the JSDF's vehicle during the night, you were sleeping back then." Simply replied Lelei, a response that didn't please Tuka as she sighed in disgust with a sorrowful expression.
"I see…"
"What's the matter?" Rory approached the blonde elf with a teasing smile. "Did his charm affected you that much?"
"N-No!" Cried out Tuka while her face turned as red as a strawberry. "It just that… I think he saved me from the well after that the red dragon attacked my village, he also was the one to escort me to Lelei's village… I-I just wanted to thank him for saving me…"
"Hm, how chivalrous of him! You know that if you want to thank a knight for saving you, you have to give him a kiss, it's the tradition ~~~" Giggled the demigod which only discomfited the poor elf even further before Lelei pushed Rory away and asked.
"Did you notice anything notable about him when you were only with him?"
"Well, you know he doesn't speak much at least not in our language and he seemed very strange, like, really, really strange, as if he was from another world even different from the one of the men in green…"
If that's the case, why does the JSDF hate him then? Especially when he depicted such helpfulness after the red dragon's attack despite his seemingly intimidating behavior.
This was something that kept all three girls discussing for hours in the bath, that and Rory harassing the two girls in deciding who between the Courier and the other JSDF soldiers looked more attractive.
[1415 hours, Italica's neighboring forests, Empire, Special Region]
"Shit… I should probably stop fisting people's mouth with my revolver, I'm probably gonna need a fuckin' cotton stick…" Muttered the Courier while trying his best to pull out the bits of brain stuck in the barrel of his revolver, in the meantime he left his glance drift around the ransacked camp, it seems they really outdid themselves with the whole rampaging thing, even more than when they made the first step out of the Gate.
His glimpse locked toward a man approaching him, his beige colored attire showed that he was NCR, but most importantly, his fancy armor and the military insignia on his right shoulder showed that he was also one of the higherups, without mentioning his distinctive instructor hat.
"You're the Courier, right? I'm lieutenant colonel Kilgore." The man presented himself while extending a hand to the Courier which he politely refused.
"My hands are a little dirty… But nice to meet you though." The Courier explained while pointing to his gloves filled with bandit blood.
"Well, aren't we all in this fucking job?" Joked the colonel which earned him a chuckle from the Courier, the older man continued. "Likewise son, I was sent by Douglas to command the NCR during this operation, I was also given leadership to the paladins too and the upcoming Enclave fleet…"
"Well, does that mean that I have to consider you as my superior?"
"I won't lie, if I had ten boys like you under my leadership, we would be doing miracles, but I can't force you anything as long as you are under House's wing. I've also heard about your exploits at Nelson, you seem to fend for yourself better than with a team."
"That's not entirely true, I can follow somebody's order if they have the right mind."
"Brains and guts that's how I like my soldiers, and my women." Praised the colonel while patting the Courier's back and demanding him to follow him. "We found a bunch of civvies caged by these animals, I thought you could help us out with communication since you've previously made contact with the natives…"
"Sure."
During their walk, the two men were intercepted by two tribal of the Dead Horses surrounding the Courier and bowing their heads in respect while whispering.
"Deer nyah…"
"Yeah, you're welcome too, guys…" Replied the Courier with a smile before sending them away while the colonel looked at the scene confused. "They're the one who got captured by the deserters, they just thanked me…"
After this, the two finally reached the busted-up cage where the NCR troops and the paladins helped the distraught civilian line up on the ground, the Courier narrowed his eyes as he found some of them uncannily familiar, the same thing for them as they kept goggling him like some kind of statue, a terrifying statue.
The Courier stepped up in front of them and pulled out a red carnet from his back pocket, he opened it up only to be welcomed by a delightful fragrance tingling his nose in bliss, an odor reminding him of the beautiful blue-eyed woman who handed him the book.
"Hey, Courier! Stop dicking around and talk to them!" The colonel woke the Courier up prompting him to focus on the task at hand.
"Um okay, uh, how did you… get here?" The Courier clumsily uttered while flipping through the pages looking for each word he needed to say, one of the civilians stood up and explained their painful situation.
"You know what happened to us Messer since you accompanied us with valiant men in green. When we split up from your group, those vagrants immediately attacked us! They took everything and killed most of the convoy while they left us to be sold to the slavers!"
"Shit, poor Itami and his squad's endeavor went to the shitter…" The Courier grimly thought, he then looked toward the colonel and translated him all what the villagers said.
"Hm, poor bastards. Okay, we'll just give them some supplies and let them go. You two soldiers, take these two kids, their parents, and that old man over there." The colonel ordered which the two officers next to him did as obliged.
"Wa-Wait what are you doing?! Stop it! Mom! Where are they taking us?!"
The Courier looked with shock at the two men brutally pushing the old man and the family forward while they kept screaming in terror and struggling from the troopers' violent grips all while the rest of the villagers were dragged away by other soldiers.
"Hey, that's my son! Where are you taking him? Please! Stop! I thought you were supposed to save us!"
Furious, the Courier dragged one of Kilgore's sleeve and demanded an explanation for such brutal demeanor.
"We were told to bring some native folks back at HQ and take them as refugees, y' know, show 'em how much of 'friendly' fellas we are, y' know how the English did with the Sentinelese …"
"And you think abducting them like that shows them how much of good guys we are?"
"It's just the procedure son, you won't believe the kind of luxury we are preparing from those ungrateful bastards, even I and my boys can't afford it…"
The Courier stayed silent, looking at the 'lucky ones' getting forcefully stuffed into the back of a truck and locked up, he could still hear their tearful shouts and their fists banging on the doors. This is will definitely not end well.
"Alright, boys! Let's pack our stuff and get the hell out, we still have bandit varmint nesting this forest to exterminate!" Shouted Kilgore while distancing himself from the Courier.
[1523 hours, Italica's neighboring forests, Empire, Special Region]
"Fuckin' hell! Somebody takes care of these archer nests right now!"
An arrow suddenly plucked the colonel's hat off his head, turning his face fuming red as he started retaliating by launching suppressive fires towards the tree where the bandit archers took refuge, unfortunately none of his bullets and even worse, one arrow was nearly going to pierce his right pectoral if the Courier didn't drag him down to the ground in time.
"We're dealing with elven bandits…" Explained the Courier after taking said arrow to his helmet while saving Kilgore, fortunately, the head of the arrow simply bounced off from the metal armoring "I heard they were the best when it's about shooting bows and shit… It means we're in some deep Scheiße."
And in some deep shit indeed they were, a deep fierce river divided their positions from the bandit's hiding spot and the BoS knights we're discharged miles away to sweep the forest, leaving the NCR soldiers fighting what supposed to be a simple cleanup mission, they were so wrong.
No fucking way to even look up thanks to the barrage of constant arrows raining down at them, while the suppressing fires only increased the arrows' intensity, they were basically a bunch of sitting ducks.
"God fucking dammit it's three o clock and I still haven't got lunch! It's not a bunch of pointy eared fags that will keep me from my roast beef!" Roared the colonel while crawling toward one NCR soldier lifting quite a heavy backpack compromised of radio equipment.
"Gimme that speaker soldier!" Exclaimed Kilgore before reaching the device to his mouth.
"Kralan four this Grand Dux Six, enough play around and let's get this over with!"
"Roger that Grand Dux Six, Calumn thirteen get ready…"
A few miles away three Vertibirds were closing in on their position.
"Get me this shit to the stone age! Hurry up!"
"Calumn thirteen you heard that. We need some fire rain down the tree lines on the left of the river."
"Roger that Kralan four, we'll rock em and fuck em!"
"Alright start to focus and get in close formation, wing to wing…"
The colonel dropped the speakers and turned to the Courier with a shit eating grin. "You'll see son they'll be cleaning this shore in a matter of seconds!"
"Who are you talking about?" Asked the Courier but Kilgore didn't reply and only settled by looking at the other side of the river with anticipation.
"Grand Dux Six this Kralan four, the helicopters are coming in thirty seconds, tell your boys to get to cover!"
"Haha! Here they come!" Stood the colonel proudly and pointed at his left, not giving a single fuck at the arrows still shooting toward his direction.
Suddenly a roaring sound started approaching in high velocity as the three Vertibirds barely popped into the Courier's dumbfounded vision that a cloud of fire erupted from the ground on the other side of the river, the explosion vibrating the very insides of his eardrums before the aircrafts disappeared the same way they came.
The explosion stretched all over the coast and reached the height of a four-story building, the elves came down from the trees like roasted monkeys while the few who survived the blast ran to the water while being scorched in flames.
The NCR stood silent contemplating the horrific scenery, the sky started to take an orange color as the fire started to spread all over the forest.
"Fucking Enclave knows how to kill shit…" Commented the colonel moved by the beautiful sight of the roaring flames to the point a tear appeared under his left eye. "Can't believe we used to fight these guys a hundred years or something… Fuckin' hell what a sight!"
He whipped the tear from his eye and turned toward the Courier giving a wide proudful grin.
"You smell that?"
"Smell what?"
"The napalm son… Nothing smells better than that shit! Better than that fucking jet or psycho…" The colonel took a short pause to take a good chunk of sodium palmitate into his lungs "Y'know, here's a quick story, I was there back at Bitter Springs…"
"Bitter Springs?! You fucking kidding?!" The fierce frown on the Courier's face was masked by his helmet and his hostile tone was camouflaged by the sound of the flames, which made Kilgore take his words as admiration.
"Yeah, I was just a small lieutenant back then, while the others took vantage point to the back of the canyon, my crew and I brought around three hundred gallons of fuel, opened the barrels and rolled them down from the side cliffs, and then we threw a couple of matches and the entire fucking camp burst into flames, you should have seen the show, a giant fucking fire pit! hehehe…"
The Courier wanted to punch him square to the jaw, but being surrounded by NCR officers would just be a death sentence, so he simply clenched his fist while the colonel continued his story with a nostalgic smile.
"The flames stayed for around seventy-two hours, after that everything was black as coal, you couldn't fucking distinguish through the ashes what was human and what was not, and that smoke, hmmm… delight… smelled of victory…"
"You know that many women and children died during that?!"
"Yeah, it's a shame…" The colonel's expression slowly turned sorrowful "It was a tragedy, but I can't let that haunt me forever. However, I don't blame the guys who can't go over it, you don't stay human when you go through that shit. I presume you already know that Courier…"
Indeed, he knew, and he also knew one poor bastard who couldn't get over that event.
The Courier respected Kilgore as a person with honor, but that still doesn't keep him from being such a piece of shit for taking the NCR's bullshit so lightly and finding some kind of sick fantasm from that horrifying event.
[1536 hours, Italica, Empire, Special Region]
"What was this ruckus?!"
"We have no idea!" Exclaimed Hamilton while looking at her majesty exiting her chamber with a frightened face "Our soldiers spotted a large ball of fire erupting in the western forests; we didn't see who's the perpetrators were, but there are rumors that a red dragon is causing havoc in the vicinity, but they said it was already defeated, so…"
"The west forests, isn't there where the bandits and the deserters took refugee?" Asked Pina walking on top of the city's walls, she could distinguish the gigantic cloud of smoke rising in the air, not only that but the entire west side of the forest was plunged in flames, feeling the princess a sense of worry in case the fire spread towards them, a few moments passed before Hamilton replied to the question.
"Indeed, the guards said that they've been hearing sounds of battle in that area since dawn, we wanted to go take a look but we decided it is much reasonable if we stay put until it is all over…"
"Could this be the work of my father's forces?"
"Unlikely, the entire Imperial Army, or actually what's left, has been reorganized and divided into our cities, we are the only one who has been dispatched in this area…"
Her response brought a slight emotion of sadness in Pina's heart but she quickly brushed it off, if that wasn't the Imperial Army, then it couldn't be her Knight Order since they were still far from here…
Could it be?
"The man in green…" She whispered, trying to swallow the ball forming inside her throat "Could it be them who are executing the attack…"
"I hope not…" Confessed her fearful page "If these people could do damage of the scale of a Great Red Dragon, who was rumored that they're the one who defeated it, then…"
Hamilton preferred to stay quiet for the time being, it was better not to push the conversation much further…
[2001 hours…]
The sun settled on the horizon while a flock Vertibird flew back to HQ, the Courier looked down from the opened hatch of the helicopter at the smoke covering miles of forests where the fire seemed to not rest, they've basically wiped all of the bandits and deserters of this side of the country in a matter of a day, but at a cost of turning said region into a complete warzone.
And tomorrow they'll go east to take care of the same plague, probably turn that patch of land into ashes too while we at it.
Seeing such great sceneries being torn by the flames of war made him hurt, and there's definitely no fucking way this will be unheard of, while the Empire will probably not care the JSDF definitely will and this will only add more fuel to the fire.
…
Fuck `em, these bandits looked for it, they can just replant the forests anyway, even though he's pretty the NCR will not give a shit about it, he'll have probably to see the Followers of the Apocalypse for that.
Feeling the double dose of caffeine starting to wear off, the Courier sat in a corner of the helicopter and left his eyes close, it now has been two days since he closed his eyes, but the voice of the colonel next to him disgruntledly woke him up again.
"Hey Courier, look over there, that's Italica…"
The Courier followed where the finger of the colonel pointed at, a grand city was positioned in the middle of large plains of farmlands while a large river stuck to the city was accommodating it with clean water.
"Pretty cool place, I wish I could visit now…"
"Yeah, don't worry, you're going to visit it in the end. After we deal with the bandits around the base…"
The Courier looked at the colonel with a confused glare. "What?"
"Italica is a very strategic city in these lands. If we took it. We'll have a definitive advantage against not only the Empire but the gooks as well!"
"Wait, what?!" Shouted the Courier in disbelief at what bull shit the colonel just said. "Who fucking gave the order?"
"General Douglas of course, the other leaders were a bit hesitant about it, but they were all convinced on their own…"
"Even House?"
"Heh, Mr. House was the fucking first guy to accept after that they've told him could get his infrastructure and casinos in it, call it some kind of 'Little New Vegas'…"
Of fucking course he'll accept, it was a matter of time before the NCR would use their silver tongues to pull something like that. Even with a new president, the bear's obsession for expansion and culture assimilation would have inevitably crossed the Gate.
And the Courier can't say shit about it since he was no leader, which is why that bitter taste he was currently tasting in his mouth only increased.
The character of Kilgore is obviously a reference to the character of the same name in Apocalypse Now.