Chapter 10: On the trail of Augustus
4 hours since they've been captured and he saw it all. A terrible omen and a sign of what's to come as Joe watched it unfolded from his field HQ of the Chimera, the monitors there showed him footages of green tinted IRNV surveillance footage from a drone, he saw his Orion Recon team being captured all without firing a single shot. It wasn't like he had hoped for, in fact it was much worse.
An entire platoon of Vipers were waiting for them, lying in wait around the mountainous ravines and crevices of the rocky terrains. Just when the Recon team entered their AO and began to make their way to their intended OP, they were captured, surrounded on all sides and dragged off into POW trucks.
Sending in a rescue force for him would be too risky given the terrain and their current capabilities in the region, but a rescue must be mounted nonetheless. Next to the surveillance monitor of his laptop was a call window from Hera with sound spectrum monitors for her voice to be recorded and analyzed.
Joe answered the call by clicking on the small call window. The smaller window on the laptop's screen expanded to a larger size now with her mechanized suit gazing at his own camera feed.
"Big issues. Jr, our wild kaiju helping us, just got back to base. It seems the Vipers got some type of psychological element and he's recovering from some issue I don't know about. He keeps mumbling his daughter's name. I think i'm getting a hold of the issue." Hera said on the monitor screen.
"Whatever it is we got another one now. Viper just intercepted our recon element. All of them were just captured. They didn't even have a chance. I was afraid they would have been shot on site where they were, but they are being brought back. Who knows what will happen to them. I need a plan and now. We have to get them back." Joe ordered in a stern voice.
The situation appears tense for him to say the least, as he watched, the truck appear to have taken them towards a mountain fortress, an ancient one at that with a single way up along a slope that left attackers exposed on either sides.
A massive crevice facing out to the Dead Sea, this was Masada Fortress and he knew from history classes how brutal the siege of Masada was even for the elite Roman Legio X of Augustus and Caeser.
"Sir, there's someone calling you. Said that he wishes to speak to you personally." One of the Orion men there quickly patched into his HUD an unknown call ID.
On his HUD, he saw a silhouette of a wolf face drawn from electronic circuit boards, with crimson red background to contrast with the golden wolf face, Joe knew this was Belisarius.
"Joe Marshal? This is Belisarius, I'm being prepped for field deployment now, I heard that you could use a help with your Reconnaissance Team." his voice came through Joe's ear, synthetic and full of Roman vigor. However Joe can hear Belisarius making some grunts and moaning sound occasionally in the background.
Joe rose a brow hearing the odd noises in the background and huffed out. "You sound busy yourself Belisarius is everything alright?..." Joe asked in a dry voice. He leaned in closer on the monitor arching his back as he sat in a desk chair. It creaked beneath him, but he kept his eyes on Belisairus's camera feed.
He heard Belisarius made an embarrassed grumble as he glanced downward noticing a cable lodging up his tail hole while other robot arms were working on his limbs, artificial muscles and sinews under the robot armor plates. On the back of Belisarius's head was a cable lodging into his neural outlet port to program him with the data of the mission's AO.
"Apologies but it appears that I may have called you at a very… compromising time. I'm being tuned up for the deployment." said Belisarius as the robot arms were now going over his torso and pecs welding the armor plates into place, each connections of the armor plates made an orgasm like feeling to him tingling his senses causing him to moan out involuntarily.
Before him though was Leandros holding a tablet in his left hand, apparently working on the tuning up process. "Anyway, perhaps we can work together to rescue your recon team. Seeing that your Hera is a rather… interesting woman to say the least." Said Belisarius.
"Woman? The way you say it makes it sound like she's been acting all sultry once again. She does this to everyone she meets I swear." Joe said. He thought about how Hera acted again.
The sassy dry sarcasm she used all the time, and displaying her body in errotic femanine ways when representing herself. He shook his head trying to get the images out of his head. They were disturbing him. "Eugh God tell me she's sticking to her own species. I don't wanna know if she's coming onto you. Interesting woman. Interesting way to describe her." Joe said.
He leaned back into his chair and nodded to Belisarius then. "Right. You want to help me then get out of whatever you are doing, and get those troops back. One of them must have screwed up."
"Right, I'll be deploying now, rendezvous point should be provided to you from my commander." The call was shut off and Joe received an enclosed document on his laptop showing a ravine near the entrance of the recon team being the Rendezvous point for them to meet one another. This was all that Joe need to put together his option, at the bottom of the document there was a reminder to him, a Codec frequency to contact Belisarius, 140.15.
Joe looked at the contact number and grumbled. He hesitantly recorded the number copy and pasting it to a document he saved on the computer. Though in his own mind he thought if he should even use it. Belisarius still disturbed him. "Alright. Planning time. I need an expert out there now. Everyone here won't let me do this myself so I need someone sleek." Joe said.
"Then how about a ninja?" A female's voice said to him.
Joe hearing the voice looked over to one of Orion Sword's ninja troopers. One of the female ones who was wearing a sleek armor set. Mostly dark grey metal panels on the body covering her body.
The shoulders had white colored round pads made out of metal, while the armor's forearms had a gun metal sleeve of metal. In between all of this was a durable bullet resistant material that was more flexible than the rest of the armor covering the rest of her arms and her hands.
Her chest piece barely exposed any of her feminine features. Instead it was a grey plate shaped like an upside down trapezoid with a conclave indent on top that was a similar 3 sided shape with each side parallel to the side of the trapezoid. Over this was the dark flexible material that covers her shoulders and the entire neck.
Her abdomen had a similar plate covering it with dark straps holding it and the back plate together. Down her legs were more sleek rounded sleeves with a darker angled accent running up her thigh. Her knee caps were covered by a round plate. Three sides on top angled, and the rest on the bottom round.
The helmet she wore however was the most striking feature since it had color to it unlike the rest of the armor on her body. A red triangular facial plate with the point facing downwards acting ad the faceplates chin, and glowing red slit.
[hr]
2 hours later…
It was a long and uneventful trip for Belisarius, an hour and a half sitting inside the hull of a VTOL transport before hitting the ground and an additional 30 minutes sitting with Leandros inside a humvee as the robot Lucario drove him to the objective, the route they were taking was running parallel to the Dead Sea.
When Belisarius looked to his right he saw the what could best be described as a lake, one that had the highest concentration of salt on the planet. Along the way he saw that there were various burning husks of vehicles left on the road, civilians, IDFs, Vipers, Chimera occasionally.
What remains of human corpses were littered and strewn across the land. On either sides of the road, they saw the madness of war on display with rancid stench of rotting human corpses and blood rising high on their noses. Even Belisarius had to sigh out seeing the carnage of war, he may have become a bit soft, he thought that war was his domain but now he wasn't so sure.
"Nervous?" Leandros asked nonchalantly to Belisarius, the robot wolf shook his head. "Negative, just anxious before battles. We feel that everyday." Once the humvee came to a stop by a crossroad with one footpath heading into the ravine to the south of Masada.
Leandros then put his right hand to the corresponding ear and called up the Orion forces that were present there. "This is Maximus, we're on-site, standing by for your confirmation." Said Leandros while Belisarius glanced up and looked around the humvee checking for possible ambushes and hostiles.
They heard the same feminine voice Joe was talking to respond to them. "Here as well. Look slightly to your 9 o'clock and you'll see me. Look carefully or you'll miss." The voice whispered.
When they looked they saw that ninja trooper blending into the environment near a dark rock, they could make out the red of the helmet's slit angular optics. Though they didn't know her name.
"Affirmative, we have you insight." Leandros replied to her as he let Belisarius disembarked from the humvee. Once he was on the ground, the robot wolf then hunched down to a crouch walk stance and make his way towards her while Leandros reverse gear and drove away from the area.
"Belisarius, at your service, you must be the one Joe sent for?" He introduced himself her before noticing her slender and feminine appearance. It would then make him feel awkward and blushed red upon seeing her. Romans like him have always been familiar with the sight of a man at arms, but to see a woman at arms in the modern world it left him lost for words. "That's very… interesting recon armor and gear you have there." Said Belisarius.
"I can hear your voice Belisarius. I'm Caprice Delores. Ex-Orion's ninja trooper. You sound almost flattered. Go on look its fine. The armor is supposed to be sleek. No one can sneak around and perform acrobatics in heavy uniforms." She said as she wiggled the middle of her body in a teasing way to him. "You should know it helps with movement. See if you can keep up while we are hunting snakes today." Caprice said.
Belisarius in turn made a slightly nervous groan seeing the middle section of her body moved, it had been ages since he last saw a human woman in anyway and now it felt so alien to him. "A p-pleasure working with you Caprice… Hmmm my, Orion's Sword is full of surprises." Said Belisarius as he scratched his head in surprise. He reached for the rifle mounted on his back and grabbed it by the foregrip and brought it up to his hands.
Caprice can see that he had an automatic bullpup rifle in hand with a drum magazine. On his midsection he had a utility belt holding addition magazines and a satchel on his back to carry grenades. Seemingly light on equipment but looks can be deceiving.
"Let's go then, I'll take point while you provide overwatch, since there's only two of us we'll have to make do carefully." He stated to her as he cocked the bolt of his rifle, Caprice heard the round slamming into the well greased chamber with a cracking as solid as an AK. The top of Belisarius's AR-68 rifle appeared to have a rectangular electronic scope to zoom and utilize various vision modes.
She noted Belisarius's advanced weapon admiring its structure. She herself lifted her arms up causing a pair of under armed tonfas under her forearms to fold outwards as quick as a switch blade knife. "Nice gun you have. Mine's smaller. Never thought I'd be admiring a talking wolf's gun. Alright let's do this then." Caprice said looking for a high ground. A vantage point of some type.
Immediately after they commence their operation, Caprice would find that the high ground was within easy reach for her as she skillfully traverse the verticality of the terrain while Belisarius was keeping low profile on the ground moving off of the main road towards the fortress. Along the way, the two saw various patrols of Vipers being deployed to guard the footpath.
Most of them were spreaded out at about 10 meters apart from one another to avoid bunching up and becoming vulnerable to being ambushed. Belisarius kept himself low, lying prone on the ground and observing the incoming enemies, Belisarius saw that the enemies were equipped with NVG monocular mounted on their helmets.
These were apparently low level light infantry of Vipers as Belisarius can tell by their light harness, tactical vest over their desert camouflage uniform. Their lack of a face mask like their more elite counterparts also reinforce the notion that they were light infantry.
Their AK-74M Rifles slung on their backs or cradle in their arms as they walked about, some of them were seen carrying RPK-74Ms or RPK-12. Two of them were seen carrying 6P41 PKP Pecheneg LMGs as they continued their patrol around the place.
Belisarius can see that his HUD labeled them in yellow diamond symbols to denote they haven't see him, next to the diamond symbol was a green hue square telling him their current status and state of mind being unalerted and relaxed. As they passed by him, he stood up from behind the rocks and continued forward with Caprice providing overwatch for him and call out patrols and dangers.
As they were making their way towards the fortress, the approach however felt rather eerily quiet and dreadful, Belisarius saw from his night vision mode a mouse was scurrying on the ground in front of him.
Afraid by his stature and appearance, the mouse scurry away heading towards the fortress but as it did, its paws tapped on something. What followed was an explosion with the mouse's bits thrown everywhere, a minefield was in front of him and the mouse had sacrificed itself to save him.
However he knew that this was going to much more difficult to infiltrate the fortress as a landmine detonation would no doubt alerted the guards to inspect the area. "Hey, you guys hear that? Sound like we got something popped. I'm gonna go check it." Belisarius heard the voice of a young male fighters from beyond the curve bent of the footpath and he felt compelled to duck down and hide behind a rock.
He began to crawl on his belly reaching for the slope ridge of the mountainside to avoid being spotted while the lone patrol man head out to the minefield to inspect the result. "CP this is David-1. We have one our mine exploded. Possible intruder in the area commencing search patterns now." The patrol man called out on his radio while crouching down behind a rock. "Acknowledge, sending reinforcement now. Use extra caution, out."
"Just what we need, more of them for the party." Belisarius grumbled as he moved forward on the ridge towards the Masada fortress. Eventually him and Caprice were at an OP on top of a ridge looking at the fortress itself. The tourist attraction had now been turned into a military base with the flat open ground being used for a Helipad.
An Mi-48 Kajman gunship can be seen patrolling the perimeter of the base, another utility helicopter, a modified desert hexagonal camouflage patterned Ka-60 Kasatka helicopter was on the helipad. Further away from the open ground, inside the central ruins of the fortress Belisarius and Caprice can see the Orion recon team being held captive.
Caprice took out a pair of binoculars from her back, and zoomed their lenses further to get a closer observation of the camp below. She moved closer to see the recon team in the cages. They were all dressed in lighter fatigues that allowed them to sneak around with less noise.
They looked rather tight against their bodies printed on with pixelated desert camouflage while their heads were covered in balaclavas and round helmets. In front of their eyes were glowing lenses.
She tapped a circular button on the top of the binoculars that allowed it to listen on the conversation. At that moment she saw one of them grab the head of a squad member flinging his head downwards so that his face kicked the top of the other's thigh. "-gonna die in this cage with thi fuckoid for gettign us busted! I told you to stay ducked and go slow! They are going to water board us with gasoline or something! OH GOD!" the man shouted.
Their cell guard however slam the bars of the cages with a baton and shouted furiously at the Orion Recon members. "Shut up in there will you? Venom boarding is going to happen like it or not. Let's start with the wimp over there, the rat of the bunch." The guard huffed out arrogantly before walking away.
"My best route is the elevator on the cliff. Fastest way up there by now. Cover me as I go and pray we don't trip on the last lap." Belisarius stood up and cocked his weapon, he switched the safety off and began to slide down the cliff using his magnetic paw pads to grip the surface before finally jumping off and landing down on the ground, slamming on the earth and threw up dust and dirt.
Caprice though simply jumped down the cliff face all the way to the bottom. She fell through the air as she moved her right foot outwards and pointed it downwards as she fell. Her foot hit the ground while her leg bent down as she coiled from her fall. Her suit though "Whired" loudly as it supported her body against the fall allowing her to take bigger leaps with no injuries.
Belisarius would then sprint towards the elevator using his robot legs to help him reached the elevator at dizzying speed, as he reached the platform though he felt something was not right. He crouched down to minimize his target profile and hitched a ride up the cliff.
He looked at the panel and noticed how the weight limit light was flashing with a note clipped on the top stating the weight limit can tolerate 4 person at a time. That was odd as he appeared alone in the elevator and yet he was setting off the weight limits.
"Odd, why am I exceeding weight limit? I'm not that fat, am I?" He asked himself perplexed, that was when he realized something. As the elevator passed over a light bulb and saw that there were transparent human silhouettes inside the elevator with him.
Four of them in fact. "Surprise tincan mutt! We got ya at last!" The optical camouflage Viper troopers shouted excitedly in a Redneck accent as they revealed themselves and holding their weapons up at Belisarius's face. "I'm afraid you might need to work on your conducts." He grumbled snidely to them before suddenly crouching down and impaled two of them in their stomach with his sharp titanium claws ripping through their stomachs.
He then gripped at their organs and innards and yanked them out before kicking the other one with his right leg and head but the 4th one unconscious. With the Vipers down, he fired off his AR-68 rifle with suppressor attached to the muzzle of the weapon, killing them all in one go.
Caprice on her elevated position started to assemble a sniper to cover Belisarius. Though already looking at his brutal killing method she already wondered how much of use she would be since it seemed he was efficient on his own. She kept a stiff face and acknowledged. "Nice work. You're at the top. Maybe they didn't hear any of that comotion." Caprice said.
"I doubt that they're deaf as a snake. Anyway keep an eye out for me, there could be additional guards responding soon." His voice sounded to her over the coms as he began to make his way towards the prison area. From her scope, she can see that Belisarius was hiding behind boxes and crates before slinking around from one tent to another using the fabric and fences as covers to obscure the line of sight of his enemies. "All fireteams this is HQ, one of our unit has been KIA inside the elevator. The intruder is nearby, search the base top to bottom now." Said their commanding officer on the coms.
Surely enough the base began to switch to a more cautious state of alarm as the guards put on their Night Vision goggles and monocle on their helmets and began to frantically search the base for Belisarius. The robot wolf felt the stress building up and the intense experience was flooding his mind with instinctual warnings and occasional pop up message telling him to keep his nerves in check.
Caprice saw that he was able to make his way into the prison area relatively well, as the lone guard there walked about patrolling the prisoners, Belisarius bashed the guard's head with his rifle's buttstock, knocking him out in an instant. While the guard was down he proceeded to stomp on his neck, snapping the bones there in an instant before ripping the locks out to free the prisoners. "How many of your are there?" He asked one of the prisoners.
"Four of us. Including dumbass here who got us busted!" one of the men said as he punched the meaker man in the arm. "I hope I busted his face in." The same troop said.
"Wait are we being saved by a robot furry now? I must be dreaming." Another Orion trooper quipped while batting his eyes noticing Belisarius's notably high tech aesthetic and his appearance alone seem to make them ponder who could this be. Not all of them are in the knows as much as their commanders.
"Take these for self defense, you'll need them. Conserve your ammo and short control burst only. We don't want to run empty." Said Belisarius as he gestured for them to follow him out of the prison area before heading out towards the helipad area.
"Oh man, I am so going to blow it. G-guys I don't think I can k-keep it in me for long." Said more clumsy Orion trooper named Johnny as he followed them trying to keep up with them but his wimpy cowardly voice and clumsy demeanor kept him falling over again and again. Belisarius frowned and groaned at this. "Just keep up and you'll make it through, you're a soldier so act like one." He scolded Johnny.
But as they were reaching the helipad, Johnny tripped on a rock and fell into the spotlight of Vipers, alerting their presence to the guards around them. "Alert! The intruders have busted the prisoners out, all fireteams to intercept!" The red alert klaxon blared up with the Viper forces converging on their location.
"GOD DAMMIT! JOHNNY NOT AGAIN! GET THE FUCK UP! I DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT VENOM BOARDING IS!" The one who lambassed johnny earlier for his poor effort. Again he scolded him as he ran to Johnny's side to hoist him up and run. "Idiot! I have to save your ass! You busted us the first time!" The soldier shouted. He was just named Seager for the time. Either his real name, or call sign.
"Bastardo, you just have to alerted us didn't you?" Belisarius scolded Johnny as he detached the suppressor of his rifle and opened fire on the incoming Viper troopers.
The Orion members saw that their weapons were quite accurate and perhaps highly lethal as the Vipers were literally blowing up into smithereens, chunks of flesh and blood flew everywhere suggesting the bullets they were using might be HE rounds or Incendiary.
Belisarius's weapon though left his targets missing limbs and dying in their own blood. "Keep the pressure on them, we need that helicopter to escape!" Belisarius shouted ordering his men to push forward and hijack the helo while he shot off the spotlights leaving the Vipers without sufficient visibility on the ground. "Caprice, cover us while we hotwire the chopper, take out any Vipers trying to get near us." Belisarius ordered on the coms.
Caprice looking through her sniper scope could see the Orion squad running to the helo while Belisarius fended off for them. They were sprinting in a narrow area not looking back. "Just run that thing will protect us! One bad ass mother fucker that was!" Seager shouted.
"Targeting now. Just hope the one doesn't screw them again. The other really turns high pitched when he shouts." Caprice said as she postined the reticle of her scope over the incoming Vipers. Without hearing a gunshot he saw several viper's stuck in their chest causing violent line of blood and guts to fly out of their bodies while their bodies were flung forwards to the ground.
"Good shooting, we're onboard the helo now, heading to extract you." Said Belisarius as he sat down on the rear sit of the Kasatka as the helo took off from the helipad. His rifle ejected the motorized drum magazine from the lower receiver allowing him to slam another magazine into it. The buttstock of the rifle automatically secured the magazine into place allowing him to raise the rifle up and lay down suppressive fire, knocking down more Vipers as they flew off towards the nearby ridge line and hovered the Kasatka for Caprice to board. "Take my hand! Quickly, the enemy gunship is coming back!" Belisarius shouted out to Caprice as he held out his hand towards her.
Caprice held out her hand as she ran towards the helo. She jumped into the air and latched it onto Belisairus's wrist while his own wrist wrapped around her's.
He pulled her into the chopper's cabin with both hands, gently letting her sit down next to him but unfortunately for her she was next to Johnny. "Whoa, uh sorry for screwing up back there." Johnny whimpered before Caprice as they took off and flew southward.
"Hang on to your seats, we have enemy gunship hot on our tail." The Orion trooper piloting the chopper announced nervously as he kept his helo at ground hogging altitude trying to avoid the Kajman's radar.
High above them was the Kajman gunship, a hybrid gunship model with the camera on its nose turning about left and right zooming in and out for the pilot to spot targets. The black and white thermal imaging system allow the gunner to see trails of the Kasatka's engine exhaust as the Kajman began to hunt the fleeing chopper into the ravines.
"Damn it he's onto us, they don't have radar lock on yet but that could happen at any moment." Said the pilot of the Kasatka as they flew into the narrow ravines at a risky speed and altitude.
The gamble was clear, if they can lose the Kajman in the ravine then they should be home free, but it was a gamble in vain as the pilot and gunner of Kajman continued to trail them relentlessly like hungry wolves hot on the trail of a flock of lambs.
"Command this is High Noon 1-1, we have sight on the target, requesting permission to fire over." The pilot asked calmly as he stabilized his gunship for the gunner to set his sight on the fleeing Kasatka, his commanding officer though did not share the calmness of his underling. "Shoot them out of the damn sky. Those bastards have been tearing us apart for too long."
"Jeez I hate that sonuvabitch." the pilot grumbled as he then switched on the master arms of his AA missiles and prepared for lock on. He kept his gunship above the ravine before looking down, on the thermal imagine and lock on system, he saw the Kasatka chopper silhouette highlighted with a box over the target. "Missile lock, firing." He pressed the button on his control stick, firing off two infrared missiles flying at the Kasatka's engines.
The missiles were closing their distance and there wasn't much room for maneuvers, death was on the horizon when Belisarius saw this he instinctively grabbed onto Caprice and held her down using his body as cover just in case the inevitable explosion might tear the chopper apart.
"Dropping countermeasures!" The pilot banked right hard dropping off countermeasures from his chopper confusing the missiles as they detonated mid air, some of the shrapnels struck the Kasatka's rear and tail rotor causing the chopper to experience slight malfunction as they began to spin left and right more violently.
The passengers on board felt shaken and jolted around as the helo malfunctioned. The close explosion unnerved them badly. "Shit! Damn! Just get us out!" Seager cried out.
"Damn that was too close. Are they still tailing us?" Caprice asked.
"Apparently so!" The pilot gasped out exasperated as he was forced to get the Kasatka to the ground and made an emergency landing. Landing gears were deployed as the chopper landed on the grassy area. "Disembark everyone we ain't got time to fool around!" As they got off of the chopper one by one and headed out to safety with whatever supplies they have stolen, the gunship was seen circling above like a hungry vulture looking down at them with its optics to guide the deadly 30mm cannon.
They knew it wasn't just a machine gun, the autocannon in fact can rain down a hail of HE rounds that will kill them all in one shot. Belisarius was crawling on the ground with the others keeping a low profile, they used the grasses to obscure and hide their body heat signatures from the thermal imaging.
As they crawled the gunship was seen hovering in one place, sensing that his target had just sentenced it self to death, Belisarius quickly flipped around and fired off his palm mounted cannon.
The ray of the cannon struck the helicopter's fuselage and ruptured the fuel tank of the gunship, resulting in a violent explosion in mid air, the gunship blew to pieces and fell to the ground a burning wreck.
"Well at least they won't be following us now let's head South West from here we might run into some friendlies." Said Belisarius as he projected a holographic GPS map of their position on the ground, to the Orion's Sword troopers he didn't even need a separate tablet of computer, in fact the information and topography and BLUFOR lines were displayed all on the ground in holographic imagery.
The troops all near him whistled out impressed by his use of tech. They continued watching the presentation he displayed taking in his order. "We are walking. Come on." Caprice stated bluntly.
Belisarius nodded to her before standing up and take the lead for them. "You heard the lady let's go." Said Belisarius as he then walked them back to the friendly line in a single file. Knowing there could be enemy recon elements out there just like themselves, they all followed Belisarius in his exact footsteps to conceal their numbers.
In the starry sky above, the group saw a serene celestial body that was looking down at them. The stars provided them with direction with the Big Dipper being in front of them along with the Orion star that was their namesake guiding them home.
The march was grueling and intensive much like bootcamps had taught them, but still out in the desert and exposed to the elements, man and machines felt the chilling breeze blowing over them. The temperature for Belisarius was falling well below the sub zero level, his arms and legs all felt jittery and stiff in the process.
That was until they all heard a wolf howl in the night, the 6 of them quickly crouched down but Beliarius howled back at the direction of the howlers. Instinct perhaps but to his audio sensors he knew this was a code word for friendlies.
"Friendlies identified, Unit Belisarius is safe and has completed his mission." The robotic and monotonous voice of Leandros spoke up from behind the sand dunes before he himself rose up, followed by a squad of six additional robots and Arminius running down to meet them.
"Thank goodness you were unharmed Belisarius, I thought that gunship got you good." Arminius hugged his mate and patted him on his metal back, making metal clanking sound, the Orion troopers and Caprice however were treated to a scene of odd intimacy as Arminius eagerly kissed Belisarius on his lips.
All of them looked away seeing the intimate moment. "Jesus! Get that outta here!" One of the confused men shouted in disgust. Each of them felt their stomachs turn for similar reasons.
Caprice looked away from this and grunted. "Not into the weird things. You guys take it to the room please. No time for this here and now." Caprice stated.
Belisarius moved his lips away fro Arminius's as he kept his love struck face on. "Oh right. We have extracted the recon team. As you can see. It doesn't appear like any of them are injured any, or harmed. I'm surprised the Viper's didn't inflict anything on them. Though one of the soldiers s very much in need of retaining." Belisarius stated.
"It's damn Johnny's fault we are here right now!" Seagar shouted.
"S-sorry guys." Johnny whimpered weakly behind them before a sound of him getting a slap across the face by one of his teammates left him reeling further. Leandros however did not speak up his opinion on the matter and gestured for them to follow him and get on the nearby Stryker vehicle.
"We are leaving this AO now. Tomorrow's offensive into Jerusalem will go as planned meet you there." The robot Lucario stated dryly as he led them into a Stryker vehicle before letting the vehicle closed its ramp. He himself got into a Humvee with CROW Mk19 station as they headed back into the friendly lines.