Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero characters, just my OCs
"Hmm...that is an interesting proposition, taking out their supply line," Alexis remarked, "I never really thought of that since I was concentrating on taking out the artillery. We did suspect that the factory was churning out ammos for the snipers and artilleries, but not for food...after all without food no soldier can remain functional."
"That's what I thought as well, I didn't think anyone thought of that until Private Gramont was talking about the supply line," Louise agreed.
"You seem to have hit an important piece of the puzzle Private," Alexis complemented making Guiche turn red.
"The question though is how they're getting their supplies? We've been watching this road for a long time now and there's nothing to indicate that they're getting their supplies through the road. Are we missing something?" Alexis mused.
"Maybe a secondary road?" Guiche suggested, "A cliffside area like this should have multiple entry points? Did you ever try to encircle them or scout the area?"
"We did, there is nothing though that would indicate an entrance, only rocks and more rocks."
"What about a hidden entrance then?" the Black Raven asked entering the conversation as he looked at Louise and nodded, "Hello been a while."
"You too," Louise said, "thank you for saving me back at Riang."
"My pleasure," the Black Raven replied.
"A hidden entrance?" Alexis remarked.
"Correct, it is possible that they have created a hidden entrance that only they know about, most likely at the rear of the place since you can see any trucks that come from the side, that way even if you do look around you won't be able to find it," the Black Raven explained.
"They did get nervous when we started poking at the back, we thought it was because of a chink in their defences, but the cliffs proved to be unscalable so we gave up on it. Do you know how we're going to find this hidden entrance?" Alexis asked.
"Well...there is one way," the Black Raven said. The next day a contingent of tanks rolled over to the rear of the area trying to stay quiet about their entire movement, Louise herself couldn't believe the plan when she first heard it, it sounded something that wasn't going to work. However the Black Raven seemed confident that the plan would work despite its shortcomings though Louise hoped that those shortcomings wouldn't come to bite them.
"I'm not sure if this would work," Louise voiced to Mason.
"Well it's the only way that we'll be able to do anything in regards to breaking through the barriers, so I guess we'll just have to trust him," Mason replied.
"How well do you know him anyways?" Louise asked.
"Well...he saved me once when I was just a kid, of course I already knew that he was a mercenary, but he was never really someone who was on the evil side. He always fought for honour and justice...a strange fellow really," Mason explained.
"So then...how does he know where to attack?"
"Don't know, but he's a genius when it comes to warfare so I guess we'll just have to trust him." The tanks then lined up against the rear and aimed their cannons at the cliffside before firing in unison, the shells destroying the cliffs. Louise nervously waited for any kind of results, anything that would prove that the plan had been a success, the cliff began to crumble and break apart from the explosions. The Confederacy soldiers gave the cry of alarm when they saw what was happening and sure enough they fell under attack as they tried to take out the tanks first rather then concentrate on the infantry.
"That tells me that we're on the right track," the Black Raven said.
"Or they're just fighting back as per usual," Mason said firing his cannon, Louise covered them by firing on the defenders though her rifle wasn't far enough to actually cause any kind of damage since they were far away and they were taking cover.
"Any progress?" she asked, "I would very much like to see something."
"Patience Corporal, patience," the Black Raven chuckled, "should be anytime now..."
Sure enough the constant barrage from the tanks obliterated the cliffside as it crumbled into nothing revealing a tunnel that had been covered up, there was a great cheer from the Belfast side as they rushed towards the tunnel while the Confederacy turned to cover the exit. "Well what do you know? Your plan actually worked," Mason remarked.
"Well I have Private Gramont to thank for that, without him I wouldn't have made up this plan of mine," the Black Raven said, "now let's go in and take them out!" The Belfast military charged towards the entrance as they finally had a breakthrough with the siege after months of besieging the place and they were looking forward to finally destroying this factory. Louise was a little bit behind since she had to wait up for the squad 7 members that had accompanied her before hurrying forward, the battle had already been underway. The Belfast and Confederacy forces were shooting back at each other and trying everything within their power to achieve their respective objectives; it was sheer chaos as Louise had no idea where to go or where to even start. It seemed that the Confederacy were re-routing all of their forces to defend the hole that the tanks had made though the tanks were quite slow in their arrival due to the fact that the tunnel only allowed one tank at a time to come through.
"Come on follow me," Louise said trying to keep the men alive through this firefight by moving to a much safer area, even though there weren't really any safe areas, she held the line beside a burnt out tank and began to fire on the Confederacy soldiers. She would need to get moving on the next phase of the plan, which was taking out the artillery as fast as possible, once those were eliminated then the frontal assault team can go in and sandwich the factory in a two-pronged assault. However the entire plan hinged on the fact that the artillery needed to be taken as fast as possible, so speed was of the essence.
"Looks like they're trying pretty hard to make sure we don't go any further," Alexander said with Suzie agreeing with him.
"Well that's kind of a given," Louise said, "however we can't afford to stop here we need to keep moving. Alright Kirche I want you to take a squad and distract the artillery crew and their defenders, just make sure to keep your head down and not to do anything rash while I'll lead another team to flank them. Once we eliminated the guards we can move in together and take out the crew before they can alert the enemy what happened."
"Sounds good to me, just make sure not to get killed okay?" Kirche said moving away already.
"You sure that's a sound plan Louise?" Suzie asked.
"No, but it's the best plan we got so let's try our best in accomplishing it," Louise admitted.
"Well with you here I doubt anything can go wrong," Alexander remarked making Louise smile a bit, she saw Kirche's team distracting the soldiers their attention focused solely on the perceived threat. Louise quietly crept up behind them, making sure that there weren't anymore enemies around them for them to be found out, before taking out a grenade. She turned to see Alexander and Suzie do the same.
"On my count," she said, "one two," taking out the pin of the grenade, "three!" before throwing it at the soldiers and took cover. The explosion was loud enough to make Louise nearly jump and she could have sworn she saw something just fly over her, hopefully just some rubble and not human flesh, before jumping over the cover and gesturing for Kirche to move in. The two squads moved as one and shot at anyone attempting to stop them, "Alice! Demo charges on the artillery cannons pronto," Louise ordered as the engineer moved in and began placing the charges.
"Keep me safe," Alice said, "Alex could you help me out here."
"Sure thing Miss Alice," Alex said moving in to help his fellow engineer. The rest of the team began to create a defensive circle around the two engineers, Confederacy soldiers already noticing what they were doing and moving in to intercept them.
"Incoming," Kirche said firing her machine gun at the nearest soldier, causing him to fall off the steps and into oblivion, before she had to duck from the retaliating soldiers.
"Make sure that Alice and Alex aren't harmed, we need them," Louise said taking cover, "how long is this going to take?"
"Give or take a few minutes," Alice said seemingly uncaring about the bullets flying past her.
"Define a 'few minutes'," Guiche said, which was largely ignored.
"Just do your best everyone," Louise said taking out another grenade and throwing it sending a group of soldiers flying. The soldiers were beginning to take cover as well and were suppressing Louise's team with the sole purpose of taking out at least one of the engineers, something that Louise was not going to allow to happen on her watch, "on your right Alexander!" she exclaimed.
Alexander turned and shot a flanking soldier who was trying to get a shot in, "Thanks," he said before turning his attention to the next soldier.
"They're trying to flank us," Kirche said, "we can't keep this up forever Louise. We're fighting on three fronts and not enough men to cover all of them properly," as she turned from the centre to the left, then right, then centre again. She was right, even Louise was having a hard time trying to figure out who to shoot next.
"Alice...anytime now before we gotta abort," Louise said warningly as Alice made a satisfied sound.
"Done!" she exclaimed before crying out in pain.
"Alice!" Alex said as blood blossomed from her shoulder.
"Can you stand up?" Louise asked.
"Y-yeah I'm fine-ouch," Alice said grimacing from the pain.
"Thank goodness that you just finished everything, alright let's retreat and blow this thing," Louise said as the team quickly made their getaway Louise taking the detonator and destroying the entire artillery battery line. Immediately from the corner of her eye she could see the frontal assault team beginning their march as they began to obliterate the factory's front guard, soon enough they would have the factory in their grasp and hopefully the Confederacy wouldn't have any ammo or supplies to fight with.
"Everyone retreat to the factory, he's almost done," one of the Confederacy officers called out as the Confederacy began to retreat from the main base area and went into the factory before making a last stand around it.
"They must really want to defend that factory if they're this determined," Mason said over the radio.
"There must be something good inside then," Alice said, yelping when Claudia tightened the makeshift bandage she was making.
"Yeah..." Louise said having a bad feeling about this, she could feel it a cold chill up her spine, something in there was scaring her and she didn't know what it was. Just when the Confederacy were about to fall and the factory was about to be taken a large blast kept the Belfast military away from the factory, it was a wall of flame and Louise recognised it from the countless times she had seen it in Helkeginia as did the other mages.
"No...that's impossible..." Kirche whispered looking at Louise in fear.
"Isn't that the Flame Wall technique? That's at least Triangle-level," Guiche hissed.
"Mage..." Tabitha remarked.
"It's ready now...the ritual has been completed and it is now ready to be unleashed on the Belfast military," red robed man said, "come forth my familiar!" the door of the factory then opened to reveal a red creature with horns and red bulging muscle. A demon from the netherrealm.
"By the Founder he even summoned a familiar, just who is this guy?" Kirche exclaimed.
"Not good, not good," Louise said knowing that the Belfast military were not prepared to fight against magic at all. The only way that they would be able to defeat this enemy was to use magic as well, but that would reveal their true nature to pretty much anyone and Louise could not risk her friends being roped into this as well. "Kirche, Guiche, Tabitha, don't interfere in this...I'll handle it."
"You're joking right? You can't use magic Louise, how are you going to handle it?" Kirche asked, her eyes widening when she saw the smirk on Louise's face, "No...you can't be serious."
"Looks like those explosions are going to be useful after all...I can't let you three get roped into this, no doubt the military's going to take me away once this gets out...at least you three will be safe," Louise said.
"No way! There's no way we're going to let you take the fall!" Suzie said clinging to Louise, her eyes beginning to tear up.
"She's right...we...I can't lose you," Alexander his voice full of sadness and anxiety.
"I know...thank you, both of you, however if I don't do anything then the demon is going to slaughter everyone. At least I'll save everyone by doing this," Louise said hugging both of them before kissing Alexander, "I love you both..."
"Louise...please don't..." Alexander pleaded.
"Go, go and hide. I'll take care of this," Louise said as the Belfast military began to retreat from the sight of the demon, the brave few that tried to fight it ended up killed from the demon's claw as Louise stood before it.
"Louise!" Suzie said, Alice pulling her away, "Sis!"
"Alright then...let's see if you can stand this!" Louise said taking out her wand and pointing it to the demon as a small blast erupted from the demon, it growled a bit and looked down at its smoking chest, "Huh...guess that didn't work," Louise said. She then began to run away from the demon as it began chasing her around, she knew how sharp those claws were and if it managed to get her she was finished. She ducked behind some barrels and fired on the demon before ducking as the claws tore through the barrels effectively destroying her cover. "Ah damn it how am I supposed to fight you?" she asked rhetorically firing her rifle at it, but the bullet seemed to have little effect on the demon.
"No weapon can harm my familiar, it is the ultimate fighting machine," the robed man said.
"Then I'll just take you out," Louise said turning her weapon towards the man and pulling the trigger, the bullet flew towards the man as he lazily waved in front of him as a flame shield appeared protecting him. "Tch...I hate flame mages," Louise muttered to herself before rolling sideways from the demon.
"You're quite the persistent soldier aren't you? You've caused a great deal of trouble for the High Priestess...I shall be the one to eliminate you and become greater than my peers."
"Blah, blah, blah...your monologue is a little bit tiring," Louise hissed before she felt a sharp pain on her back as the demon swatted her into some crates. She cried out in pain and her vision dimmed as she groaned to see the demon towering above her. She stared at it with steely determination, she was not going let it end here, she would not let this...this thing kill her now. She had people to protect, people to come back to, and she be damned if she wasn't going to make it out of this alive. "Take your best shot," she said.
"Stay away from my sister!" Suzie said rushing towards the demon and hitting it with a steel pipe. It growled and looked at her before attempting to swat her away, Louise reacted on instinct as she pushed her away as she felt excruciating pain on her back as she cried out in pain. "L-Louise..." Suzie whimpered.
"You okay?" Louise asked trying to stay conscious, the demon's claws must have ripped through her back and wounded her severly.
"Y-yes...but Louise what about you?" Suzie said feeling something sticky when she touched her back and saw blood on her hand, "Oh god Louise you're injured badly, it's all my fault."
"No it's okay Suzie, I'll be fine," Louise said taking a deep breath, "go...run away. I'll protect you...I'll always protect you."
"N-no I'm not going without you, if you're gone what am I to do...I promised myself that I would give my whole life to you...you're my big sister..."
"Don't worry I won't die just yet," Louise said with a slight chuckle, "trust me."
"I won't run...I'm staying by your side no matter what," Suzie insisted.
"You're a stubborn girl you know that," Louise sighed trying to get up and drown the ever annoying voice of the mage.
"I think you've rubbed off on me, can you run?" Suzie asked, her face paling when she saw the three claw marks on Louise's back.
"Yeah somewhat," Louise said aiming her rifle at the demon and firing a couple more shots.
"Normal bullets won't work," the Black Raven said coming onto the scene, "you'll need a special kind of bullet." He then loaded something into his handgun before beginning an incantations as runes appeared around him.
"Impossible...that's...that's..." the mage said in aghast.
"Magic Bullet: Blazing Phoenix!" the Black Raven said aiming his handgun at the demon before a phoenix, hot as the burning sun, came out of the handgun and shot straight towards the demon. The demon roared briefly before it was incinerated by the intensity of the flame, the mage whimpered in fear as he began to run away. "Oh no you don't," the Black Raven said, "Magic Bullet: Vine Entrapment," as a vine wrapped itself around the mage.
Louise looked at the Black Raven with complete awe and surprise, how can this person know magic and actually use it? Was he a mage? Was there something that she didn't know about this world? Her knees became a little weak due to the blood loss, though she stood in between Suzie and him. "Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you...I'm an ally," the Black Raven said turning to them, "it's nice to meet you...mage of Helkeginia."