Chapter Nine
The difference between the four-engine military transport aircraft and the single rotor military transport helicopter was extravagant. The latter was forty meters long, eight meters high, weighed twenty-eight thousand kilograms, could carry fifty soldiers at a time, cruised at a maximum speed of nearly three hundred kilometers per hour, and was powered by a three-engine rotor; the former, on the other hand, was fifty-three meters long, seventeen meters high, weighed one hundred and twenty-eight kilograms, could carry over one hundred troops at a time, cruised at a maximum speed of over eight hundred kilometers per hour, and was powered by four massive turbine engines.
That, at least, was the difference from the outside. Inside, Link did not feel much of a difference as he sat on the side of the plane's cargo hold, securely fastened to his seat as it bumped its way through what was expected to be the last of local turbulence; with so much cargo crates fastened and secured to the side, the extra size really didn't make much of a difference to him. Granted, there were key characteristics of the interior of the two aircrafts that Link could pick out with his mechanics-interested mind aside from simply aesthetic difference, but, otherwise, it mattered little. Nothing could be found in the immediate area where Link sat that couldn't be found in the helicopter he had rode on four hours ago.
Except maybe anxiety. Gerudo was never known for being able to make good planes, but the turbulence he had endured had been the worst he had ever felt. Link half-expected the plane to fall apart, and was not entirely surprised to learn that aviation crews were part of an all-volunteer unit. It took some nerves to ride – never mind fly – one of these things.
Although initially told that the trip would take six hours, the plane was expected to make the trip in five; one hour of the entire operation since leaving Garuda was spent flying to Samani Airbase by helicopter and loading all necessary materials onto the plane, but weather conditions between Samani and Zubara, which had been expected to hinder the flight, expedited their flight time to a mere five hours…that, and the plane crew's insistence that they push all four engines to the limit to travel at the plane's maximum flight speed when possible. Which no doubt contributed to the bumpy ride.
There was nothing to see out the window. It was a moonless night, and there were no clouds outside. For various reasons, one of them to avoid radar detection, the transport plane had actually been flying at low altitudes of no higher than five hundred meters. Regardless, a look at his wristwatch – something that had been thrown in along with the outfit – revealed that they were nearing the end of the journey.
Footsteps from Link's left, rapidly approaching from the front of the airplane, caught his attention, and he looked up to see an enlisted Gerudo soldier approaching him, wearing a helmet with visor and oxygen mask, and a jumpsuit. From the details in the uniform, Link could tell that the flight suit was actually army issue; although Gerudo did have its own air force, most of the military transport aircraft were used to complement their ground forces, so the transportation corps fell under the purview of the army.
The crew member actually had to raise her voice to make herself heard above the engine noise; although the hold was pressurized, all four of the plane's engines were running at a roar as they were pushed to their absolute limits…although, if the fading volume was any indicator, it seemed as if the plane was finally slowing down, a sure sign they were close to the landing zone. "This is as far as we can go, Agent Link," the soldier, a sergeant, said as she braced one hand against the wall of the hold, leaned forward closer to Link's ear. Interestingly, the Hylian agent noted that the sergeant's long hair was tied in a knot, and secured and fastened to what seemed to be a hook on the back of the helmet, presumably to prevent it from tossing about should the interior depressurize. Undoubtedly a design unique to Gerudo helmets, given the nation's gender demographics. "Any closer and we'll definitely be detected by enemy radar."
Link nodded and reached under his seat to pull up a handheld electronic mapping device, looking to see their current position on a digital map. They were mere kilometers away from their LZ now, and had apparently just crossed the Hylian border, continuing north. The idea behind that move was that – despite Valentine forces having successfully taken Zubara after heavy but futile resistance against Anansi – it would still take Valentine forces at least a day to properly secure and fortify the area between Fort Regner in Hyrule and Zubara in Gerudo. It meant that there was a fair chance that a Gerudo military transport plane flying below radar coverage could avoid immediate detection to a certain point, drop off its passenger, and flee before any form of anti-air capabilities could be brought to bear.
Either way, though, it was clearly time to go.
Undoing the straps keeping him in his seat, Link managed to stand up, cautiously moving over to the rearmost of the plane; although the turbulence had already stopped some minutes ago, he could never quite get over the feeling of shaky surprises when it came to Gerudo aircraft. At the very back of the plane, tightly strapped to the deck of the plane with its fore pointed towards the airplane's nose was Epona, having made the transition from helicopter to airplane along with Link at Samani Military Airbase. The motorcycle was going to be his way around the operation area for the near foreseeable future, but, for now, Link dwelled not on that, but on unlocking every one of the six straps that connected with floor hooks on the plane meant to secure cargo crates instead, even while the sergeant went over to a nearby control panel to make last minute checks and adjustments. It was just short of a minute later that all the straps were undone and stowed away; leaving them there would've increased the danger of them whipping out of control when the rear hatch opened and the hold depressurized. Getting back onto Epona – not having rode the scout motorcycle prototype for nearly a week – was actually a rather comforting feeling, like being reunited with an old friend. If the motorcycle had been sentient, Link certainly hoped the feeling would be mutual.
Confirming that Link was now on Epona and had engaged the brakes, the sergeant, standing by the control panel, called out, "Three minutes to drop-off. Opening rear hatch!" And, with some force, threw the metallic lever beside the control panel.
Even before Link could see the night sky from the sliver of a gap provided by the opening of the transport aircraft's rear hatch, chilly winds of Hyrule's moderate winter were already sweeping through the entire cargo hold, fluttering through the clothes he was wearing and tarpaulin wrapping around the batches of cargo to the rear. Beyond that widening rift was the darkness of night…and what seemed to be a barely visible horizon. In fact, as the rear hatch finally completed lowering itself into a ramp, Link could see the earth below them – the distinctively flat plains of Hyrule – rolling beneath the plane just ten meters below. They were flying dangerously close to the ground, and he could not quite shake the feeling that there would be a sudden, violent bump through the plane as a hill or some other geographic feature would strike and scrape the bottom of the aircraft.
The pilot either really knew what she was doing…or had a form of courage that was bordering on insanity.
"You're back in Hylian territory," the Gerudo cargomaster was practically yelling from where she was standing just so she could make herself be heard to Link above the roaring winds buffeting the cargo hold, "so hopefully the home field advantage means something to you. Forward scouts tell us that Anansi was in the area just three hours ago. It shouldn't have been able to get too far. No apparent Hylian resistance, though, so be careful."
Meaning that he was going to be alone, without support, and deep within enemy territory. Impossible odds, Link reminded himself, but, for some reason, that made it all the more appealing. It was far from any heroic sentiments, Link knew, than it was the simple desire to challenge the chances. Not that he actually expected it to happen; he was too realistic for that. That said, however, in a near-suicidal mission such as this, he knew that this kind of mentality was one of the ways to keep his spirits up against the odds.
"Remember to use the proper IFF codes when you eventually need extraction," the cargomaster concluded, already ready to move back over to the side of the hold so she could make sure the drop would be handled as smoothly as possible from her side. "We'll be there to ferry you back home. Good luck, and good hunting, agent."
Link nodded from where he sat on the bike, revving the engine just twice to ensure that he had a good feel for how Epona was going to respond; the details in controlling his descend and his deceleration on this motorcycle was going to determine whether he was going to land safely on the ground from a transport aircraft…or end up as several meters of tomato juice splatter. That Link preferred the former was of no surprise.
"If you want, I can download information on the local geography," a familiar female voice said with a slightly challenging air, "and tell you where and how it's best to land." Durandara, without materializing into her hologram form, undoubtedly trying to show off as she spoke directly into his eardrums. As much as that sounded useful, when Link shook his head – this was the kind of thing he liked to do by hand – the AI sounded almost haughty. "Don't come crying to me if anything happens, then."
"Ten seconds to drop off," the cargomaster called out, checking her watch even as she kept eyes on Link, making sure that he was well and truly ready for the jump even as Link shifted Epona into reverse; he needed to opposing momentum to cut down on the speed that the aircraft was generating, or the landing was going to be excessively rough. "Status okay, all green."
Link took a deep breath, held it. While it was hardly the most dangerous stunt he had ever performed, he admitted to himself that he had never exactly rode a motorcycle out of a cargo plane flying at low altitudes before.
"Prepare for drop off," came the voice of the co-pilot over the speakers; undoubtedly, those in the cockpit where also keeping track of the best geographical position in which to dump Link back into Hyrule, relying on both rough topological data as well as positions of known Valentine forces. "Countdown: Five, four, three, two, one."
Right on cue, Link fed power to Epona as the wheels fought to catch traction. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he tried to time it to his comfort and what he felt was the optimum acceleration to which he could achieve the fastest reverse. Undoubtedly, Durandara probably could've calculate this with greater accuracy and speed, but Link tended to think that skills diminish the less one used them.
Altogether, with the angle of the ramp, the speed that Epona could achieve in reverse gear, the electronic speedometer indicated that Link achieved just shy of one hundred kilometers per hour when he suddenly felt the characteristic lurch and weightlessness, a sensation that clearly told his both wheels had just cleared the ramp, and now had ten meters of nothing but air below them. Factoring in wind resistance and gravitation forces, and Link figured that he could add another ten or twenty kilometers per hour to that reverse thrust.
That still didn't diminish the problem at hand, though; as slow and low as the Gerudo pilot had attempted to fly, the cargo aircraft was still flying at four hundred and twenty kilometers per hour…meaning, upon landing, Link was going to hit the ground while traveling at a forward velocity of approximately three hundred kilometers per hour. It was well within Epona's maximum speed…but, then again, most motorcycles weren't exactly meant to achieve the speed instantly following a ten-meter drop from a fixed-wing military transport aircraft.
Link quickly compensated, shifting Epona back into forward drive and feeding as much power as he could in an instant, the wheels swiftly coming to a halt from its reverse spin and beginning to move the other direction, hopefully smoothing out the landing and preventing the motorcycle from skidding violent when it hit the ground. The instruments within Epona must've realized that it was a freefall, because the suspensions slackened in preparations to receive a heavy impact from below.
Link clenched his jaw, careful to ensure that he wasn't going to bite his tongue upon impact, waiting for a landing that seemed like it was going to take forever.
The landing did not exactly go smoothly. When Epona's wheels hit the ground, it did so at an angle. The rear wheel landed first, which distributed the force backwards and sent the bike on a fairly chaotic tilt to the left, which Link compensated by turning the front wheel right even as he fed as much power as he could to the forward drive in hopes of compensating and regaining balance. Dirt, gravel, and small pieces of rocks were kicked up by the spinning wheels at such an ineloquent landing, creating a very obvious trail in their wake. Link was fairly convinced that he was going to be thrown off Epona – or, alternatively, Epona was going to land sideways, a result that was potentially equally disastrous – until, luckily enough for him, a slightly larger piece of rock knocked tilted the motorcycle's rear wheel just enough for the motorcycle to begin to right itself.
At least, until Link realized the bike was moving up a small hill at more than two hundred kilometers per hour, and that he wasn't decelerating fast enough to turn the hill into anything else but a rather large ramp. Despite Link's best efforts to steer Epona in a different direction, math and physics couldn't be denied; as soon as Epona went over the apex of the hill at two hundred kilometers per hour, it was launched off the hill as the bike began to catch air…again.
Thankfully, the descent was much easier to control this time, and the landing was much smoother; the wheels landed onto a grassy field almost simultaneously, and the surface was just smooth enough for Link to maintain balance. Even better, there was a hill just close enough for Link to kill speed against. Trying to accelerate when one was at high speeds was one thing, but now Link was at a certain velocity bracket where the judicious use of the brakes was more prudent. With a bit more effort, Link finally managed to bring Epona to a halt after many more meters of violent skidding; it lost inertia, and Link quickly counter-balanced the motorcycle in time with a foot just as Epona tilted to the side, the engine making a combination of a cough and a purr as it finally came to a rest.
Heaving a sigh as he tried to calm himself down from the experience, Link slowly looked up to the skies, watched as the Gerudo transport plane that had dropped him here quickly ascended altitude as the ramp went back up and sealed the cargo hold, and the plane lazily went into an arcing turn to return to Gerudo territory. It looked as if he was in the clear for now. If anything else, however, Durandara was clearly less-than-impressed. "Wonderful," she sounded absolutely deadpan, although whether or not she was exasperated was a different matter altogether; her voice suggested more sarcasm than frustration. "A suicidal agent aiming at making maximum effort and fuss. Good to know we can both die together."
The Hylian agent quirked his lips into a small, amused smirk; it hadn't been that bad, had it?
At the apex of the Gerudo plane's turn, several bursts of light were seen on the horizon, and Link watched with anxiety as two small fireballs streaked into the sky, signs of surface-to-air missiles tracking the transport aircraft as they soared into the sky in the direction of the plane's engines. On cue, the plane quickly deployed two dozen flares, sending its own barrage of fireballs in every which direction; the flares, in theory, were balls of magnesium that burned hotter than the plane's engines, fired away from the aircraft at high speeds, meant to fool the missiles into tracking the new heat sources instead of crashing explosively into the plane. Link himself sighed with some relief as the missiles were successfully diverted, flying harmlessly up to the skies and away from the plane, which quickly accelerated in the sky as it leveled out and retreated back towards Gerudo at best speed, flying above him for just a split second before going right past.
With his concerns over the Gerudo flight crew now shelved, Link turned his attention back at Epona, running a quick diagnostic on its computer; he was fairly worried that the less-than-stellar landing might have damaged a few components. The armor certainly seemed to sport a few more dents from where rocks had pelted and bounced off; in fact, Link was fairly surprised that none of the rocks had pelted him, for he didn't feel any pain in his legs. Surprisingly, and thankfully, the vast majority of the components checked out alright. The suspensions flashed yellow, indicating at possible damage, but when Link gave the command to run a physical test, the springs compressed and loosened several times before the computer reported that the springs seemed to be working alright and wasn't reporting any known anomalies. That was going to have to be good enough; there was still a lot of road to cover. Link quickly rode over to the forest for more cover before killing primary power to the engine, allowing Epona to run almost silently at minimal power, reducing engine noise by more than ninety percent. The silence and stealth would be appreciated, especially since he decided the need to gather intelligence on the local area was much more important than testing out whether or not his current disguise worked. Seconds later, and Link was navigating through the Hylian woodlands.
For some time, Link always wondered exactly what Hyrule was going to look like after he returned to it. Somehow – under one influence or another – he had expected that a Valentine-occupied Hyrule was going to be alien to him, foreign, something changed, something he could no longer recognize. Raging fires, perhaps? Or would it be smoldering craters and ominous low black clouds? Yet as he continued to ride on, he realized that nothing actually seemed particularly different. The landscape was as he remembered it, rolling plains dotted with forests that were not as green as one would hope to be, without little sign of devastation or ominous signs that indicated at war, much less an occupation. In fact, it was as if the entire place was still peaceful and harmless as a whole.
Link jettisoned those thoughts from his mind; that mentality was going to lax his guard and get him killed.
"I'm receiving trace signals of Valentine communications," Durandara suddenly spoke, her voice indicating at quite a bit of interest. "It seems we're right at the edge of their battle-net range." A pause; Link guessed that the AI was attempting to gather more from the signals. "The signals are too weak in this area, and the local foliage is interfering with reception," she explained several seconds later. "Try moving closer by another one hundred meters, and I'll try to try cracking their COM channels again."
That was not a difficult request, considering it was the direction Link had to head anyways. A cautious one hundred meters and a minute later, the artificial intelligence was trying again even as Link looked about the forest around him. If memory served correctly – and he could always consult Durandara afterwards to check the local topography – these woodlands would stretch on for another thirty or forty kilometers before they ended at the outskirts of Fort Regner. If Link had to venture a guess, that would mean he'd arrive in the area during the late hours of morning…or perhaps even faster, if he decided that time was more important than stealth. That was going to depend on the effectiveness of the special forces disguise he had on, and whatever information Durandara had to offer him.
"Alright," the AI declared snappily as they finally came close enough for the signals to be slightly stronger. "All of their channels seem to be encrypted; quite careful of them." Strangely enough, she didn't sound displeased by this news at all. On the contrary, Durandara actually sounded smugly satisfied, as if she had been looking forward to the challenge. "I'll see if I can decrypt the code and see exactly what they're talking about. Just give me a bit of time to squirm my way in and link up with their proprietary…"
Link froze as he brought Epona to a sudden halt, the motion alarming Durandara, who trailed off immediately. He had spotted movement up ahead beyond the canopy of trees, a shade of green that was slightly brighter than the leaves in the area. His first instinct was that it was a Valentine combatant, and that put him into a cautious mode immediately, despite him supposedly masquerading as a member of their special forces. "Movement around the bend," Durandara spoke just a second after; her voice somehow hinted that she was displeased – perhaps even frustrated – that she seemed to be playing a reaction game, alerting Link only after he had noticed the fact. It reminded Link that, for all her capabilities, Durandara, like everything else, was limited in what she could do…a fact that would undoubtedly annoy her to no end if he actually bothered to voice that thought. He decided, like everything else, to keep it to himself. Slowly, Link got off Epona, scrambled towards a nearby tree, pressing himself against it before drawing his gunsword, shifting it to sword mode; most of the branches here were thin enough to slice through, so long as Link maintained an up-down style that avoided tree trunks.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one to have noticed that he wasn't alone in this part of the woods. Just a moment later, he heard a distinctive clicking sound, the sound of a magazine being locked and loaded into a firearm. Judging by its pitch, Link decided that the weapon was more likely to be an assault rifle than a pistol or a submachine gun. He tensed; starting the mission by being discovered this early on was not at all a good omen.
"Audio analysis identifies the weapon as a Valentine S80A1 assault rifle," Durandara whispered. "Selective fire, gas-operated, accuracy at up to four hundred and fifty meters. Uses five point fifty-six by forty-five rounds, so your vest may be able to stop one or two of them if you get lucky. Based on detailed audio prints, there is a seventy-eight percent chance that the assault rifle is currently using a thirty-round magazine with twenty-six rounds left."
Link blinked; that was remarkably thorough. He ventured a guess that Durandara could tell that much by analyzing the pitch of the sound from everything else she knew about weapons construction, metals, and mass…but this level of detail was definitely something that could only be done by an artificial intelligence. Maybe he needed to change his opinion, and move the emphasis of his thoughts on Durandara from "limited" to "capable".
Footsteps were not easy to mask of leaved terrain, and the crunch of boots on otherwise unstable ground gave away the position of the approaching interloper with every step he took. Every five meters, Durandara whispered the distance between the approaching threat and Link, who continued to press himself against the tree as he stabilized his breathing, waiting for the moment the AI would inform him that the distance had closed to five meters.
And when Durandara did give him that warning, Link swung out from behind the tree, his longsword swinging forward along with his entire body in a slashing motion…
The tip of the blade stopped right at the throat of an armed and armored Valentine corporal just as the young man barely managed to level his assault rifle at Link's chest. The Hylian's look of intensity and concentration was matched only by the anxiety and caution of the man he had at swordpoint, cool, ready eyes matching wide, startled ones. The only thing that stopped Link from killing the man was the lack of necessity and the preference to see how his disguise held up, and the only thing that stopped the young male corporal from killing Link was the familiar flash of green garb that indicated they were from the same armed forces.
But, for now, there was hesitation as both of them stood at a stalemate, unmoving, holding their breaths, weapons pointed at each other close enough for any of their miniscule motions translating to lethal action…until, calmly, Link merely allowed for his gunsword to drop to the side, turning it back into handgun mode as he did so. Hopefully, that would be the final indicator, a motion that would extend enough trust for him to convince the corporal that he was special forces, and to survive this encounter.
The bluff paid off as the corporal – that was what the insignia labeled him as, at any rate – having been aiming the barrel of his assault rifle at Link's chest while in a feral, half-crouching position, finally lowered his rifle, rising to an upright position as he exhaled deeply in what seemed like a very tense sigh. "Goddammit," he muttered between breaths, trying to control his own adrenaline as he looked at the special forces soldier in front of him in what seemed to be a mix of irritation and awe; it wasn't everyday that a member of the regular Valentine armed forces got to see a gunsword user several leagues above him. "You scared the hell out of me." He relaxed the hold on his rifle, allowing it to swing down as the strap caught his shoulder; the corporal's hands went up to readjust his helmet, a move to replace him being unable to scratch his head, perhaps.
Link looked at the young non-commissioned officer, ventured a guess that this was a young soldier probably around the same age as he. That was good news for the masquerading Valentine special forces officer, who could use the relatively green soldier's inexperience to guarantee his own safety. Link turned away, as if to look at something different, but deliberately stood at a position where it was difficult for the corporal to miss the insignia on Link's uniform that labeled him as a Valentine first lieutenant, a good deal of paygrades above a measly corporal. He was, admittedly, fairly glad that the captured Valentine special forces officer whom had been captured by Gerudo forces was a commissioned officer that carried some rank; it would make the rest of his mission that much easier.
The corporal tensed on his part upon seeing the fact that the blond-haired soldier standing before him was, in fact, an officer, one who was fairly high up the chain of command when compared to the corporal's own rank. "Sir," he stiffened and addressed Link, but did not salute. Link himself noted this, and marked the discipline the corporal was trained in; it was encouraged for soldiers not to salute officers out in the field in fear of enemy snipers being able to immediately identify who was of higher rank, especially when even the most powerful of sniper scopes could not spot rank insignias and when everyone was dressed in combat fatigues. It was a common joke amongst the enlisted that saluting a greatly disliked superior officer on the battlefield was a good way for the company to receive a hopefully better replacement.
Link took this into consideration for the moment. He should be deep enough into Valentine lines when undertaking his mission, but what were the chances of him being sniped by a Hylian or Gerudo marksman who mistook him for a real Valentine first lieutenant?
"Caught sight of what looked like a Gerudo transport plane flying through the area, sir," the corporal looked around in what seemed to be a wary, if not nervous, manner, as if expecting to see something hostile to suddenly pop out from the foliage. "I was patrolling the area, so I thought I'd…" The young NCO would've continued talking, had Link not suddenly thrown him a stern look, effectively cutting off what the Valentine soldier had to say as he fell silent; the Hylian followed up with the best imitation of Valentine military hand signals he could manage…even while standing close to the young man in case he needed to squeeze off a shot from his pistol faster than the corporal's rifle. Despite being fairly confident that he had accurately managed a "stay low, find cover" signal utilizing a single hand, he did realize that Hylian intelligence's data on Valentine's covert hand signals were nearly two decades old. He needed to do this, of course, if only to gain the corporal's trust, get him to stop thinking too much, and test out if these hand signals were going to work, but Link also knew full well that, if this move was a mistake, it would resort to violence very quickly. And if it came to that, he needed to be in a position where the circumstances favored a handgun's quick draw as opposed to a rifle's range.
But it didn't come to that. Both of them quickly moved up to the trees closest to them and went into a crouching position, taking cover as if there may be an armed threat somewhere. Link pretended to do a weapons check; the corporal reloaded behind his tree.
Link waited until the corporal had fed a new magazine into his S80A1 rifle once more before pointing at the corporal's radio on his shoulder, firing a questioning look as he did so. The corporal took a moment to trace the direction at which Link was pointing before shaking his head; no, he had yet to call this in and alert his company. The Hylian interpreted this as good news, meaning he had more time to get out of there. Pressing his lips together, Link raised a hand into the air, signaled for the corporal to stick to the right flank and fan out in a search pattern. Obediently, the NCO nodded, rising from behind the tree with his rifle pointed forwards as he made his way from tree to tree, sweeping the area for a possible enemy…one he had no idea was standing just meters away.
Link made for the left side…but just enough for the corporal to see that movement and assume the special forces first lieutenant was taking the other flank. As soon as the corporal had sufficiently been obscured by the foliage, Link decided that now was as good a time as any, and, without further ado, hopped back onto Epona and, ensuring that his engine was running on silent mode, rode his way out of the forest northwards.
He had a feeling that, when the corporal discovered that the "special forces first lieutenant" had left him alone scouring for a nonexistent enemy on a wild goose run while simply riding away, the NCO was going to believe that Valentine special forces officers were the worst jerks in the world.
Lieutenant Colonel Robert of the Valentine 19th Battalion, Third Corps, did not raise his gaze from the desk he was seated in front of when the flaps to the entrance of his command tent was swept aside, a figure moving through the opening, marching up to the desk, and saluting. It was not a sign of neglect or disrespect to the officer who now stood before him on the other side as much as it was concentration at the task at hand. With the first exchange of blows having been completed, giving Valent the element of surprise, the war had now entered what was effectively a stalemate, and operations that had initially only required a handful of corps, more than two hundred thousand strong in both Hyrule and Gerudo that had limited numbers for the sake of stealth and surprise, were now expanded to the army level, with no less than one million men and women in active service throughout the continent. While the firefights and battles were not as intense as the first few days of the war, it was very clear that all three nations were at a point where they were putting all their chips onto the table for a very risky bet.
The Third Corps, having originally been tasked with defending the Valentine homeland, had been moved to support the offensive after it was clear that the initial pushes by seven different Valentine corps had caused enemy forces to retreat too far to make effective offensives at Valent itself. While Hyrule was effectively falling apart like a stack of dominos following the highly successful attack on Hyrule City, Gerudo was proving to be much more resistant; resistance in the local area was by no means over, but Hylian forces in the locale were already beginning to retreat, and the land grab Valent had pulled off generated enough "breathing space" for them to attempt a southerly assault on Gerudo from Hyrule in the north. Considering that the brass had actually relocated Anansi, making their superweapon take a massive roundabout route from the western front to the northern one, this seemed to be a very high priority affair.
But Robert was fine as he was; although he wasn't exactly pleased about it, he did recognize the fact that he was much more of a staff officer, an administrator, as much as he was a leader, a fact that his immediate superior, Colonel Arthur, seemed to capitalize on, for he often found himself handling his superior's paperwork more often than not. It was surprisingly less demoralizing than he had initially thought, however; Robert understood that he was neither a very good leader, nor was he a very good soldier, but his administrative and intellectual qualities had all but ensured officer candidacy upon his graduation from officer candidate school. From there, it was from one desk job to another. That said, though, it still meant he was left in charge of the battalion whenever Colonel Arthur decided to go another one of his "wild adventures", as many liked to call it. The problem, unfortunately, was that the colonel enjoyed doing that far too often for someone who was supposed to be commanding the entire battalion. Sure, a full colonel was still a field officer, but one would've thought that someone that high up the chain of command would be better suited staying in the rear instead of hitching rides with non-commissioned officers when going out on patrols that often deviated far from the predefined routes whenever the colonel in the humvee.
Robert often wondered if Arthur was some sort of adrenaline junkie, but he was too politically-savvy to actually say that out loud.
In the meantime, however, he didn't even need to look up from his stack of paperwork to know that the presence before him was that of Major Marisa; of all the frequent visitors to the dimly-lit command tent at this hour of dawn, she was the only person who continuously radiated a no-nonsense personality that made it difficult for anyone to mistake her for anyone else. Unlike Robert, now in his mid-forties, the twenty-eight-year-old Marisa was not only known as a competent field officer that led by example, but also for a keen and thoughtful mind comparable to military intelligence officers in the rear echelons. She was effective both as a leader and a fighter. Robert often admitted to himself that he was no saint, and felt jealous of her from time-to-time…but, like any good officer, he also told himself to be happy and proud for such a subordinate. It generally worked out.
The clearing of Robert's throat was all that he was willing to give as an "at ease" order at the moment; the night of paperwork had him exhausted – paper cups with dried coffee stains littered the tent that indicated that work hours he had been keeping apparently ignored the fact that, at nearly seven in the morning, he should be sleeping – and he had never been one to stand on strict formalities anyways, at least, not when compared to bureaucracy. That allowed for Marisa to stand at ease before asking, "Sir, are you aware of any detachment of special forces operating in the area?"
Robert raised his head at that, his suddenly-wary gaze locking with that of Marisa's while his lips parted just slightly; now that got his attention. "No, I'm not," he admitted as his hand subconsciously placed his pen on the table as a reflection of how much concentration he was giving this. "What's this about?"
Seeing that she now had her lieutenant colonel's full attention, Marisa stood up straighter. "Corporal Nicholas said he ran into what seemed to be a member of special forces while on patrol, a first lieutenant."
Robert frowned. "What 'seemed to be'?" he echoed; the loaded language the major was using intrigued him.
"Apparently, he didn't identify himself or say which detachment he was from."
That incurred a mix between a resigned sigh and a rude snorting sound from the lieutenant colonel. "Well, that sounds like the way they do things," he shrugged and chuckled, and – without quite realizing it – picked up his pen once more, an indicator that he didn't seem to be too bothered by this piece of information. "Do I have any reason to be suspicious?"
Marisa pursed her lips; she understood why her superior wasn't vastly suspicious, if only because special forces were effectively ghosts in a separate chain of command compared to the regular army, which earned quite a bit of inter-service rivalry between the two branches, but she still felt that her paranoia – or at least what resembled paranoia – was in some way justified. "Not…truly, sir," she allowed. "Admittedly, Corporal Nicholas confirmed that the lieutenant was carrying a gunsword, and we all know how hard those are to come by."
Although he still kept his gaze on Marisa, Robert seemed fairly ready to get back to tackling his paperwork and get the documents off his desk as soon as possible. "Then there's no problem," he raised his eyebrows inquisitively.
Marisa wasn't quite done yet. "He also says that the gunsword was not of a make he'd ever seen," she quickly added, hoping to instill just a bit of doubt into her superior. "Reports indicated at an unknown fixed-wing military transport craft flying over the area just an hour ago. And the lieutenant was riding a scout motorcycle that doesn't seem to be part of standard Valentine inventory either."
Robert was fairly quick to take the bait and follow the conventional line of thought. "Do you mean to say it's a Hylian or Gerudo scout bike?" he frowned. He personally doubted it; a much more coherent and much less uncertain response would've been brought to him if this was the case.
For some reason she herself couldn't quite explain, Major Marisa felt fairly awkward, and it showed as she twisted her mouth to the side uncomfortably. "Corporal Nicholas says it wasn't, sir. At least, he's never seen the model before." Her mouth twitched again, and her head seemed to be prepared to turn about and look behind her, as if she was going to peer through the flaps of the tent to see if she could spot Corporal Nicholas behind her, but the hint never actually translated into motion. "I tend to trust him where such matters are concerned," she finally allowed herself a fairly suppressed sigh. "But I can't help but feel a bit uneasy about this, sir."
It was more of a deep exhaling than it was a sigh, and the lieutenant colonel's hands positioned themselves at the edge of his desk, looking as if to push himself away from it and stand up, but the motion didn't carry through as he remained seated where he was. "Well, it's not the first time special forces have been up to their cheap cloak-and-dagger tricks," he muttered, this time more out of resigned irritation than anything, but he honestly didn't seem to mind that too much either. "Chances are they're doing a prototype weapons test they don't want us knowing about. Last thing I want is get them into my hair for deciding to check up."
Marisa had a feeling that that the sit-rep was coming to an end. "Are we to let the situation stand as is, sir?" she asked for confirmation.
Robert looked thoughtful as he silently contemplated his options for a moment. "Is the lieutenant still here?" he asked.
"I don't think so, sir," the major shook her head. "Corporal Nicholas has a feeling that the man's left."
A small, amused, knowing grin surfaced on the lieutenant colonel's lips. "Has a 'feeling', eh?"
Marisa shrugged. "Well, he also has a feeling that the man's an asshole, although he refrained from explaining why." She shrugged again, for added emphasis. "I don't think we need to think too hard to guess why."
That got a chuckle out of Robert, who then nodded absentmindedly, deciding that, for all intents and purposes, the matter was solved. "Well, leave it be for now." He seemed done, but just before Marisa could decide that it was a good time to salute and make her exit, Robert quickly added, "But I want to be notified if any more gentlemen from special forces decide to come wandering around this neck of the woods. I tend to think that one's an anomaly, two's a trend. Rule eighty-nine."
The major nodded; that sounded reasonably cautious to her as well. "Yes, sir," she saluted, and her silence, indicating that she had nothing further to add, invited Robert to absentmindedly wave a hand to dismiss her from his command tent. Hopefully, that indicated an end to whatever suspicious activity was going on in the region.
Link realized immediately upon setting his eyes on Fort Regner that he was going to reevaluate his earlier thought of there being practically no changes to Hyrule since the war broke out.
As he crept into the devastated streets of the financial district of Fort Regner's township, he was appropriately reminded of the scenery back at Sirsa Military Airbase, when he had been attempting to locate a transport helicopter to transport Princess Zelda to Garuda. Aside from the buildings that seemed to have been ripped and torn apart by bullets, explosions, and mortars, the area looked very much like a modern warzone. Parts of buildings, which generally ranged from two stories to six stories, had been greatly torn apart, while the streets were marked by debris and craters, as well as smoldering wreckages of vehicles both military and civilian. Every ground window was shattered, leaving shattered class on the ground. Fires still spewed black smoke that created a sky-high pillar that expanded upwards. The good news was that it provided a semblance of cover as Link moved cautiously in a feral, cat-like stance across the town, which actually remained fairly derelict for the most part, with his gunsword drawn in handgun mode should he need to engage anyone in this mess. All signs seemed to indicate that the Valentine forces in the area had set up camp in the actual fort – or what was left of it – but it certainly never hurt to be careful, especially with possibilities of Valentine patrols scouring the area.
The bad news was pretty self-evident by itself. There used to be thirty-thousand people living in Fort Regner and its township. Now, the area seemed like a ghost town.
Although Fort Regner and the surrounding township were not at all near the scale of Hyrule City in terms of size and scale, the destruction was undoubtedly much more devastating and thorough. It was clear that, unlike the special operations that had occurred in Hyrule City, this had been a full-out battle of attrition that moreorless laid complete waste to the city. What also drove the point home was that the bodies strewn across the area were not only that of Hylian and Valentine soldiers, but also of a small number of civilians who sported bullet holes in their bodies that lay in large pools of blood. If Link could drive any comfort from the scenery, it was that – judging by the number of dead bodies and burning wrecks of vehicles on the Valentine side in proportion to Hylian human and mechanical carcasses – the Hylian defending forces had obviously given it their all, and Valent paid dearly for attempting to take Fort Regner. In fact, if the sporadic gunfire in the distance to the east was any indicator, there were still Hylian forces in the area that were fighting for control over the city…or, at least, making a full Valentine dominion of the area a costly goal to reach.
Apparently, Durandara was of the same mind. "Audio analysis at this range is not exactly accurate," she almost sounded like she was complaining that they couldn't get close enough, "but some of the gunfire does correspond with decent matches of known Hylian firearms. Chances are that there are still significant pockets of resistance in the area."
That was not at all unlikely. Gerudo intelligence pointed out that a Valentine occupation of Fort Regner had only been established three days ago…which probably wasn't enough time for them to fully sweep the city of stragglers or fight off Hylian forces holding the outskirts. It was curious that Anansi, having been in the area before, had not wiped out resistance in the area, but it was likely that the superweapon's primary priority had been to attack Zubara, and focused only on that objective.
"We may want to see if we can make contact with the Hylian forces in the area," the artificial intelligence continued to suggest. "They may be able to provide intelligence on where Anansi was headed, if you feel asking Valentine officers about their trump card feels a bit too conspicuous."
That, too, sounded reasonable. Granted, intelligence from the Valentine side was probably going to be more accurate, but poking one's nose in the wrong direction could be far more trouble than it was worth, and Link still needed his cover intact when it would be time to actually sabotage Anansi. That said, the inherent weakness of this course of action was that there was a very real possibility that Hylian forces wouldn't believe Link was part of a false flag operation and detain him as a prisoner of war…but the briefing and preparation sessions with Princess Zelda, Director Leonore, and Director Emi had prepared him for that, and they had been all fairly confident of the methods in which he could prove he was truly a Hylian Joint Intelligence agent should the push come to shove.
Stealth was of the essence here, however, so while Link made his way towards the general direction of the sounds of gunfire, he did so while creeping through buildings and ruins and broken walls. Many physical boundaries that constitutes city blocks – doors, walls, and, in some cases, entire buildings – had been torn down, leaving him with a fair bit of freedom in terms of movement across cover. There was also a great number of debris on the street that provided cover whenever sneaking through abandoned and unlocked houses wasn't an option. Durandara was also quick to consult digital maps of Fort Regner to guide him along what she decided was the best route to take towards the source of gunfire.
Strangely enough, many of the houses – those that were untouched by overwhelming firepower – seemed whole, and it didn't seem as if the soldiers had looted the place. Link wondered if this was some sort of unique discipline enforced by their enemies…or if the Valentine soldiers simply hadn't had the time to strip these abandoned buildings of whatever was valuable.
Epona, meanwhile, had been parked in the outskirts of Fort Regner, hidden in the local foliage where it hopefully would remain undiscovered. While it undoubtedly would've been a remarkably fast method of travel, Link knew that his current objective was investigation, and that required a measure of stealth, something that was fairly difficult to accomplish on a prototype reconnaissance military motorcycle. Thankfully, while reading an electronic copy of Epona's user manual, compiled by the Hylian army's research and development organ, he learned that Epona had an extremely sophisticated auto-drive and GPS system, which, along with the vehicle's spectroimagery sensors, allowed for motorcycle to plot a route to a distant point…with or without a rider. A scout could effectively leave Epona at the outskirts of a city, move to the city center, and then give a remote command for the vehicle to ride itself over to where the scout was by navigating roads and streets and analyzing spectroimagery data in front of it in real-time…which was effectively what Link was doing right now.
To say that it was a useful component was a severe understatement. Link had no doubt that this was a function he was going to have to use time after time when riding into an area was out of the question and work needed to be done on foot.
"Stop here," Durandara whispered when Link managed to make it undetected across one of the streets after waiting for a Valentine patrol humvee to pass and disappear behind another corner, continuing only when Link pressed himself against a mailbox to hide himself, going down into a sitting position as he did so. "There should be a sheriff station ten meters up ahead on your left side. The blueprints for that building indicate that there is an underground service tunnel that extends its way east three hundred meters eastwards, which leads to a fire station. The path to the tunnel will probably be barred by a locked door, but," her voice sounded clearly like she was grinning, "I'm sure finding ballistic or explosive solutions to your problems is very much in your tastes." Having cracked that bit of sarcasm, she became pragmatic once more. "It's not likely that this path will be occupied by enemy forces, and we'd have almost-guaranteed stealth for three hundred meters."
Link nodded in agreement; going underground sounded like a very good option. Tilting his head slightly so he had a slightly better angle to look down the block, he had no problems spotting the sheriff's station at all. Rising back to his feet, he closed the ten meters between the mailbox and the half-open door of the sheriff's station in just three seconds, slipping through the gap before kneeling down, steadying his aim as he pointed his firearm outwards, and taking a quick look back out onto the derelict outside. The streets were still empty, and all signs showed he was thus far undiscovered.
Getting back up onto his feet once more, Link noted that the sheriff station, for the most part, actually seemed mostly untouched. There were a few bullet holes here and there, but most of it seemed to the result of street fighting outside on the streets than actual gunfire inside the fairly small building. Even as Link moved through the offices of the sheriff station, he noticed that the firearms were still there and seemed untouched. It was curious that none of the evacuating civilians came by to take these weapons for personal protection…but, then again, when fleeing from an enemy army, one generally didn't try to run to the sheriff station first.
"Turn right down this hallway intersection," Durandara directed the Hylian agent as he continued to stealthily make his way through the station, clearing through rooms to ensure that this wasn't an ambush waiting to uncoil itself. "There's going to be a staircase that leads down into a small jailing area. The service corridor can be accessed from there."
An underground service corridor adjacent to an underground jailhouse under the sheriff station? Link raised an eyebrow at that; it was certainly an unusual way of designing this sheriff station…and a potential equation from trouble if they were dealing with escaping convicts and criminals. Then, again, this was a sheriff station and not an official jailhouse, but still.
Apparently, Durandara was thinking along the same lines. "Yes, I know, it's pretty pathetic," she admitted. Seconds passed, potentially the AI conducting calculations or looking up information, and then she coyly added, "You will be relieved to know that the designer of this sheriff station did not design any actual prison facilities anywhere in Hyrule. Looks like we can all sleep a bit more soundly at night."
Link did not smile at that joke, but he did allow himself to feel amused as he made his way down the staircase Durandara located, stopping at the door at the bottom of the stairs before slowly twisting the knob and opening the door…
He stopped. He could hear something beyond the barely-open door…a voice, uttered in urgent whispers. That sounded like a recipe for an ambush, and it immediately set off caution alarms in Link's head as he raised his gunsword once more, preparing to deal with whatever threat may be within the underground jailhouse.
"Stress analyzing the voice," Durandara whispered urgently into Link's ear even as he slowly pushed open the door, looking about the area as he made it through. He found himself looking down a small hallway with a plain wall on the left and a small windowed office on the right that looked like a guard station. The hallway went ahead for five meters before taking a ninety-degree turn to the right. And now, standing within the jailhouse, Link could hear something else…something that was quieter than the urgent, unintelligible whispers in the distance.
Was that…sobbing?
"Analysis complete," Durandara murmured, and, to Link's mild surprise, suddenly chose to appear before him in holographic form, displaying her digital female avatar once more. One of her hands rose into the air, and what seemed like a blueprint of the jailhouse – the basement floor of the sheriff station – appeared above Durandara, the map actually being bigger than her figure for Link's viewing convenience. The bottom floor had a single hallway that resembled a capital "L"; after turning right at the end of this bend, Link would have to progress for another twenty meters, walking past the guard station and five jail cells to the right, before reaching the end of the hallway, where the door to the service corridor was located. Durandara, in the meantime, gently jabbed at the cell on the map at the very end of the hall. "The whispers seem to be originating from this cell, twenty meters down on the right. Voice stress analysis suggests that the person down there is male, around nineteen years of age, and highly agitated. Identity profile inconclusive. The sobbing comes from around here," Durandara pointed at the hallway right in front of the aforementioned cell. "It seems to resemble a child's sobbing sound; suggested age at around five or six. The voiceprints are not clear enough for me to determine whether it's a boy or a girl, though."
So that effectively meant two individuals at least, one of which was probably not a threat. That didn't stop Link from moving forward, passing through the hologram of Durandara and her blueprint as it dissipated in the air. Stacking himself against the inner corner of the wall, Link ventured a peek around the corner, and found himself looking at exactly what he expected, a twenty-meter stretch of hallway with a metallic door at the very end, five jail cells on the right of the hallway as it stretched down. Also at the very end, however, were two entities. Slumped against the left wall of the hallway, away from the jail cells, was a human body in a pool of blood; Link's eyesight managed to identify his sheriff's uniform even at this distance, as well as two gunshot wounds he had sustained to the chest. It seemed that someone had come down here and killed the sheriff, double-tapping him. There was, however, an entity that was alive; beyond the sheriff's body at the very corner of the hallway was a small human figure curled into a tiny ball, wedging itself tightly into the corner as it sobbed. The clothing – a fairly pretty and frilly white dress – indicated that this child was a girl, and, if Link had to guess, it was a very scared and very traumatized girl that was now trying to find solace in the corner of this jailhouse.
Moving down the twenty-meter stretch, Link ensured that he stayed on the left side of the hallway, out of arm's reach should anyone be behind the bars, while keeping his weapon aimed to the front-right, ensuring that he had a good shot at anyone who could be lying in ambush there. The second and fourth cell doors were actually unlocked and open. It was when Link got eyes on the fifth cell, however, that he found the source of the agitated voice.
The figure made a startled cry as he stumbled back in fight the moment he saw Link, an armed man wearing a Valentine special forces uniform, but Link managed to make sufficient visual contact with him just long enough to know that he wasn't a threat. In fact, he was very much a civilian, a young man looking no older than eighteen or nineteen years of age…probably a teenager of sorts. It was not difficult to guess why he was in the cell, though; the teenager looked very much the juvenile delinquent, with hair dyed an electric blue, earrings on both ears, and what was potentially make-up applied in a very gothic style that was already beginning to smear off, giving him an extremely disheveled look. His black T-shirt was badly wrinkled, and his jeans were very baggy and looked to be a size greater than one that was supposed to comfortably fit his hip. Meanwhile, his pale skin and bloodshot eyes seemed to indicate that he was fatigued and in poor health…until Durandara suddenly whispered so that only Link could hear. "The boy's a drug addict. I can detect drug addiction and assorted symptoms via surface biological markers. I can't tell exactly what he's addicted to without a better medical examination, but he looks like trouble."
Link wasn't going to dispute that point, even as he watched the man cower and make yelping noises as he shoved himself into a corner of his cell, seemingly certain that this Valentine soldier was going to kill him in cold blood. So, instead, he turned his attention to the girl in the corner, holstering his gunsword as he did so; there didn't seem to be any threats that he should be worried about.
Although the girl was curled up in a ball with her face buried into her knees, Link could still spy a few details about her. The girl's blond hair curled a bit, and seemed to be at waist length. Her dress indicated that whoever raised her was probably fairly financially well-off, considering that the girl looked to be well-groomed. That said, though, she looked a bit dusty and worse for the wear…which was to be expected, if Link's hypothesis that she had been spending the last three days in a warzone was accurate. Her back heaved with every sob she took, and she showed no indicator that she had actually noticed Link's presence.
Kneeling down beside the girl, Link gently placed a gloved hand on his shoulder, shook her gently once. She did not raise her head until seconds later, when her bloodshot, tearful blue eyes met Link's own. She showed fear and anxiety in general, but – insofar as Link could tell – it didn't seem as if she cared in particular as to whether anyone who found her was Hylian or Valentine, judging by her lack of significant reaction towards his current uniform. At least she seemed mostly fearful instead of completely hysterical; it meant the child hadn't gone down the deep end just yet. Link managed a small smile towards her, if only to comfort the girl, but a strange look that dawned on her face seemed to indicate that his smile looked funny, and that – had she not been crying – she would've probably been giggling by now.
That dropped his motivation to smile rather quickly.
"Hey," came a voice behind Link, and he slowly turned to look at the gothic teenage drug addict behind him; he was now pressed against the bars, reaching out with an arm that was not long enough to actually touch Link. Apparently, the youth had decided that this Hylian special forces first lieutenant was not very likely to hurt him, if he was going to spend time trying to comfort a five-year-old girl. "Hey, hey, hey. Please, man, can you get me out of here?"
Although the male behind the bars was an unarmed teenager – nothing Link couldn't handle in case something got out of hand – he admitted that he felt apprehensive about letting out someone put behind bars just like that. Durandara was of like mind. "I'm going to try and see if I can get an ID match on him and find his criminal record," she spoke privately to Link. "Identification servers in Hyrule City are down, though, so we're going see if I can pull anything from the local network."
"Just, like, throw me the keys on that dead cop over there," the teenager continued to plead before glowering at the girl cowering in the corner. "I've been trying to get the girl to get it, but useless little thing's just been hunkered there crying."
Something about the teenager's statement clearly annoyed Durandara enough to suddenly materialize before them – the air in front of him flickering with light for just a moment before she appeared in her quarter-meter-high glory. Her voice was very much irate and unpleasant even as she spoke in an acidic, deadpan manner. "Well, age issues aside, I'd think touching a dead body in the middle of a warzone's a fairly unpleasant experience…even for a child."
Momentarily forgetting that he was stuck behind bars, the teenager's eyes widened as fell back involuntarily, looking at Durandara with wide, bloodshot eyes. He had seen enough science fiction movies to know that this was very serious…but logic wasn't responding as well, with common sense telling him that this wasn't possible. "Holy shit," he murmured, continuing to stare at the artificial intelligence and trying to come to grasps with whether this was real, or if three days of being locked down here was causing him to hallucinate. He slowly turned his stare towards Link, pointed at Durandara. "Is that…?"
Her holographic form seemingly ignored the teenager before it flickered in the air a bit, disappearing for just a second before it reappeared and materialized in its form of light – a smaller version of her usual avatar – on Link's shoulder, sitting there as she swung her legs back and forth. "No mission parameters have been set regarding the encounter and protection of Hylian citizens caught in this conflict for this operation," Durandara said slowly and testily. Link assumed that she meant he should solely be concerned about the mission at hand…until, just seconds later, she decided to add in a seemingly effortful nonchalant manner, "If you choose to take custody of them until their safety can be guaranteed, however, I will not protest as long as it does not take an unreasonable amount of time."
Link decided that he was going to interpret that as his call…that, or Durandara was supportive of the idea of taking the two with them, but hid that behind indifference to maintain Link's impression of an unbiased, pragmatic AI. For his part, he certainly didn't mind this; although Durandara obviously had a personality, he thought that this was more of a programmed aspect than anything else, and that it wasn't a very good indicator for true sapience. Her behavior, however, seemed to suggest that this may not entirely be the case…and Link had a hunch that it was possible that this she had a sense of morality and honor masked behind expectations of how an AI should behave.
Not that Link minded. If anything else, he actually preferred it this way; it fell very much in line with his own judgment, and it was nice to see that Durandara wasn't just a heartless piece of equipment.
"Getting them to Hylian forces may be our best course of option," the AI finally finished, crossing her arms as she spoke. "We're headed in that direction anyways, so we may as well."
Link glanced at the AI on his shoulder and nodded. He was going to try and get the two out of here.
"Splendid," Durandara sounded quirky, bouncing herself off Link's shoulder and floating onto the ground as she did so; the girl watched with fascination as that happened. "Looking for more ways to get in trouble and get killed. Why not?" Despite her sarcasm, she didn't seem to disagree with the choice at all. Instead, she turned towards the girl, enlarging herself back to her quarter-meter height so that the girl could see the gentle smile Durandara was sporting on her hologram. "Hi, there," she tried to sound as gentle and cheerful as possible. "Don't worry, we're the good guys. We're here to get you out of here and to your parents. What's your name?"
The girl made what seemed like a groaning sound as she fidgeted slightly in her ball position. "L-Lily," she finally sniffed.
"Okay, Lily," Durandara cooed. "We're with the Hylian army, okay? We think your mommy and daddy may be with the rest of our soldiers to the north. We're going to try to get you to them so they can protect you, alright?"
Link continued to watch the exchange between Durandara and Lily, ignoring the fact that the teenager behind him was attempting to shake the bars behind which he was imprisoned. It was a fairly futile movement, considering how sturdy the metal was, but it at least served as an outlet for his anger and distress at being so utterly ignored by two potential saviors, who seemed more intent on trying to comfort a useless girl who couldn't even pass him the keys from the dead sheriff slumped against the wall. "Hey!" he hissed, wanting to scream but afraid it would attract the wrong kind of attention above. "Get me out of here too!"
Lily, too, was ignoring the bad man in the prison cell, looking at Durandara with curious and anxious eyes. Nervously, she glanced up at Link, her look fairly appraising in childlike uncertainty. Tracing her gaze, Durandara merely smiled and chose to interpret this in a way that would annoy Link most. "Don't worry about him," she said without a hint of remorse or teasing in her disembodied voice. "His name is Link. He looks a bit scary, but he's really a nice person."
Okay, that did irk Link a bit, even as he fought to suppress the urge to make a face that would make Durandara's words true. He looked scary?
"But you need to come with us, okay?" the AI continued, nodding to Lily in a manner Link found to be very maternal. "We'll keep your safe until we can get you with our team up north or your parents."
Hesitating only for a few seconds, Lily made one final sniff, wiping the tears from her eyes with a slow swipe of her entire sleeve before looking at both Link and Durandara – admittedly, more Durandara than Link – and nodded. "…Okay," she whispered, and that was enough of a cue for Link to help the young five-year-old girl to her feet.
The delinquent obviously wasn't impressed by how things were going along, because he attempted to shake his bars in vain again, trying to grab the attention of those in the hallway, fearing that they may very much leave him here to starve. He was not going to rot here in a prison cell. "Hey, hey, hey!" he snarled, definitely louder in volume this time. "What about me? Don't just leave me behind, man! Come on, please, I really got to get out of here!"
Both Link and Lily remained impassive as they turned to look at the teenager, but Durandara was clearly unimpressed as she walked haughtily over to the bars, placing her hands on her hips as she did so. Link wondered if she was doing that for show…or if she was really considering leaving him behind. "We'll get you out of there," Durandara finally spoke, but quickly raised a finger in the air as if to make a point. "But only if we have your word that you won't cause trouble and do exactly as we say."
"Okay, okay, I swear!" he hissed, looking around frantically, clearly overanxious after having been trapped her as a battle waged overhead. "Won't cause any problems. Just get me the hell out!"
Link and Durandara exchanged another look…and shrugged in unison. In their opinion, it could be worse. That being decided, Link knelt down beside the body of the sheriff and began to scrounge the corpse's pockets for the keys to the cell.
Exoria File #010
Military Chain of Command
Due to the absence of a modern military cooperate framework on the continent, each of the three nations on the continent, Gerudo, Hyrule, and Valent, operates under different administrative groupings of their armed forces, although this difference is almost specifically prevalent in their armies rather than their air forces or navies. All three nations maintain the same names in terms of army unit sizes from the two-man fire-and-maneuver teams up to battalions which may number as high as one thousand men. From here, however, Gerudo dubs any unit size larger than battalion as "army group", which may range anywhere from a small five hundred to massive numbers at more than one hundred thousand. This classification is in reflection of the fact that most military units fall under the purview of individual provinces, which generally do not field as many troops at a single time; correctional measures have been introduced to modernize the chain of command, with no tangible results thus far. Generally, however, an average Gerudo army group is sized from eight hundred to ten thousand men. While Hyrule has units of regiments, five hundred to five thousand men, and divisions, ten thousand to twenty thousand men, a Valentine brigade is considerably larger than a Hylian regiment, from one thousand to twenty thousand men; Valent uses the term "division" relatively sparingly, often denoting only the largest of brigades, and when in relation to a Valentine corps. Hyrule and Valent both share the same definition for a corps, from twenty thousand to sixty thousand men, and the same goes with army, which number around one hundred thousand men or above. Due to the advantage that technologies have provided, fewer modern soldiers are required to fulfill duties when compared to decades ago, making the Hylian and Valentine army group, which refers to any military unit comprised of at least two armies, fairly obsolete, as there are few theaters that require more than one army present at any given time. Despite the confusion this often generates in an international military setting, as the need for international standardization is simply not present, no motion to do so has been generated thus far.
Author's Note: At this point, I really can't apologize enough over how long this chapter update took. I did say that I was likely to run into scheduling problems, academics being how they are, but with a full month since the previous update…I admit I'm fairly ashamed at my management skills, considering that I am majoring in business management. I will try to be faster with my updates, but the keyword here is try…and, frankly, it's not entirely likely, especially since I will be going on holiday in Italy (specifically, the Tuscany region) in two weeks (next Saturday), and will stay there for six days and five nights without bringing my computer. So I will apologize in advance for the slow updates, and will probably apologize again when the update comes. Rest assured, though; this is a very ambitious project, and I don't intend to give up on it…at least, not that quickly.
Moving away from the topic of Exoria for a moment, I'd also greatly appreciate some feedback who has ever been to Florence, Lucca, Pisa, and Siena – all of them are in Tuscany, Italy – as to where I absolutely must visit to complete my tourism experience. Only people that have actually been there, by the way; I can look things up online just as easily as the rest of you.
And so Link sets out on his first official adventure…and first official sidequest. Civilian escort is probably one of the least favorite things any gamer would like to do, especially if the mission fails if any of them are killed. Thankfully, this isn't a game, so there's no game over, but we'll have to see how that goes. I also wanted to put some more Link and Durandara interactions in this chapter – it's rather fun to write them, admittedly – but I was running out of space and time. That said, though, I'd rather not show all my cards at once, so the conversations – or, really, Durandara speaking and Link doing something – was sparse. Don't worry, I do intend to explore the Link/Durandara dynamic further, if only because it's been a long time since I've wrote a character with great snarkiness.
Also of potential concern is how powerful Durandara may be. She has, for the time being, shown the ability to tap into local radio signals, access the internet from seemingly anywhere, project holograms that isn't limited to her avatar, and conduct extremely thorough audio analysis. I will, however, reassure you that she is not omnipotent or omniscient, and not a Deus Ex Machina; she has her limits (I won't deny that her limits are dictated by the plot), and won't be getting Link out of every tight spot. That doesn't mean she isn't incredibly useful in the right places, however.
Oh, by the way, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that someone added an entry onto the Exoria page on TV Tropes Wiki. As someone has keenly noticed, the name Durandara is based off Durandal, the name of the AI in Bungie's Marathon game, while Durandara the character has a personality closer to Cortana of the Halo games, also made by Bungie. I will say that this was very much intentional, and that learning someone had figured this out drove me giddy with glee, but I'd also like to point out something: While Bungie did influence this decision a bit, I actually was just taking a page from Bungie, but also using French mythology (Bungie did the same thing, but I wasn't trying to copy them when I took this step). Durandal (also known as Durendal) was the sword bestowed onto the paladin Roland by Charlemagne in the Matter of France; Charlemagne himself wielded a sword known as Joyeuse, and his temporary foe, Ogier the Dane, wielded Curtana. Bungie obviously took the names from these swords, namely Curtana and Durandal, as did I.
Moving on to review responses now.
Exodus5: I must say that I'm not sure about Zelda having access to magic in this story. I really liked the gritty modern feel that it had earlier. Zelda having magic seems to take away from that.
If she absolutly must have magic, which is very much in theme from the Zelda series, then why doesn't anyone else have magic? If Zelda has magic then so should Link, Ganondorf, Impa and a number of other characters. Link having magic and swordfighting skills was a staple of series since the first Zelda game.
Other than the magic thing I liked the chapter just fine. Though it didn't have much action the character development was nice. Hoping to see some explosions next time.
Zelda's access to "magic" was predetermined a long time ago during the story's planning phases. It's a nod to canon continuity, and it also solidifies Exoria's status as a sequel to the Zelda series. Make no mistake: Magic is very clearly something that's dead, and "magic" is just the term used by the modern media. I personally like Durandara's explanation of how Zelda's powers can simply be paranormal abilities or perhaps even genetic mutation; science just hasn't advanced enough to explain it. But I admit that you have very valid concerns, I appreciate you bringing them up, and I'll try to reassure you that this won't be detrimental.
I'm afraid I'm not going to spoil much about this either way, though; it's far too fun keeping all of you guessing. Rest assured, though; the gritty, modern feel will continue. As will the explosions.
The Pilot: As I promised, it is now time for a proper review (now that the nightmare of Accounting has been beaten back into submission for a while). That said, here we go:
Poor Jessica just can't get a break from the looks of things, though I was pleasantly surprised to see Link evesdropping on the conversation, and the ensuing short chat with Jessica afterward. It's good to see him continuing to care enough about her to want to help, and vice versa. I hope it continues, and builds.
And yes, I must say Jessica's reactions regarding Link are hilarious! One of my favorite parts of this chapter is the scene where Link gets his new look, and Jessica and Zelda's reactions when they see him. A very nice touch of romantic humor! And it was done in a good way as well: a reminder that romance is a possibility in the story, but subtle enough to not distract attention from the main plot. That being said, I would like to see a background file on Jessica, if it's available? (Maybe Link could 'discover' it while doing a little snooping later on, or something like that)
Now, to the big attention-grabbing event in this chapter: Durandara. I must applaud you for a most successful, and ingenious approach to working a modern version of Navi into the story! I especially like how you made her personality; it is the perfect counter to Link's reserved mannerisms. I can only imagine the possible upcoming interactions between them, based on the exchange with Princess Zelda, and afterward when Link was bording the helicopter! Well done!
On a final note, I had a couple of intriguing thoughts cross my mind when I was writing this review:
1) Leonore's last order to Link about surviving - that can be interpreted a couple of ways. Either she is telling him to be careful, and not complete the mission objective at any cost, or it could mean that we might possibly see Link captured, and have to break out of captivity (with Durandara's help of course. Have you considered having Link hide the flash drive in a secret compartment or pocket?) before he accomplishes his mission. Either way, it's a tantalizing way to leave a reader hanging. *grin*
2) This was kind of out of left field, but I wonder if the way these three super-weapons are being powered is in any way related to certain historical Zelda artifacts? As I said, a thought out of left field.
I look forward to the next chapter with great anticipation!
Thank you for your continued patronage of Exoria; you've been a reader that has been with me for a while now, and I'm glad you're still on board. Now, to address a few issues you've brought up…
I do have an Exoria File written for Jessica already, actually, but I do have a specific chapter in mind in which I'll put it up. In the meantime, Jessica won't be the only character getting a character dossier, but I won't spoil the surprise and tell you who else is going to be written up. As for Link getting captured…well, it may happen. It may throw one hell of a wrench into his mission, which greatly depends on stealth and his ability to maintain his cover as a Valentine special forces first lieutenant, but we'll see. I'm not ruling out. And as for your "thought out of left field", you should know full well that I can't very well answer that question, can I?
Well, that's it for this author's note. Please read and review, and be as constructive as possible. Remember: Many reviews means more good reviews, good reviews means happy authors, and happy authors mean greater productivity. So please read and review.