Marcus was terrified.
It was supposed to be a normal day of slave trade at the town of Peron, one of the biggest slave markets in the Empire, where countless slaves are brought in to be bought and sold every day.
So, when several months ago the news about the gate on Alnus hill was being opened and that an Imperial expeditionary army was being sent through to gain glory, treasures, and new slaves for the Empire reached Peron the town exploded in activity in anticipation of new slaves filling up the market. Except soon after there were barely any slaves sent to the town as rumors were spoken of the Imperial army and the allied kingdoms' armies being destroyed by the invaders from the other side of the gate.
Many expected thousands of brand-new valuable slaves in the town to be bought and sold making them extremely wealthy. But all they got was barely a pittance of slaves and grumbling customers and rumors of the sheer power of the men in green – who was said to field an army of mages, controlling iron animals and dragons.
However as of recent times there was a new group of people like the men of green said to control even greater powers, and by latest rumors from places near Alnus hill, they had control over a massive fortress that could fly in the sky! Off course many did not believed them except those who claimed to have seen it. Unlike the men of green, they were colored in grey or brownish-green armor, granting them the name of the men of grey or as they called themselves the Euu ann ess see.
And they were attacking Peron.
Marcus saw great balls of fire engulfing few buildings and the earth spewing out as if something hit them in a rapid succession. He saw several of the guards ripped horrifically into small pieces of burnt and ripped meat. Others were torn apart or scorched by the balls of fire exploding upon the ground. The slave owner was dragging his recently purchased slave from the other world, a rather young man, away from the chaos to somewhere safe where he can flee to his estate near the capital.
An exhausting endeavour when his slave was resisting him, screaming out what could only be curses in some barbaric language.
When he exited the alleyway, he saw a frightening sight of a large metal bird landing on the ground as several olive-armoured men came out of its back. Marcus realised in terror that they were the men of grey, one whose power was fabled to overpower the men of green. And to his luck, one of them saw him and gestured the others towards his general direction. The slave owner tried to run but his barbaric slave managed to land a punch to his face, stunning him long enough that the men of grey captured him.
"Let go of me you barbarians! I demand you let me go!" He screamed at his captors as one of them freed his only slave who hugged his rescuer.
One of the armoured beings came up to him and brought a black object down upon his face. He tried to fight back but darkness enveloped both his mind and vision.
03:14 Hours, April 5th, 2018 (UNSC – 2536)
Peron, Fantasia
Several bodies fell to the ground with a thud, a new bloody hole on their forehead. UNSC marines methodically eliminated any hostiles that tried to attack them, while those who looked important were taken down with non-lethal methods like stun grenades or knockout gas, for interrogation. The JSDF troops working with them helped secure areas of interest or take out enemy soldiers.
An archer suddenly popped out of a window and fired an arrow at one of the marines, the arrow grazing the head but bouncing off the marine's helmet harmlessly. The poor archer was perforated with dozens of bullets in return by the armed group. The hit marine simply cursed that he allowed himself to get hit by a dinky arrow.
Few men with swords turned around an alleyway trying to ambush the attackers, though futile as their motion trackers had spotted them. JSDF troops easily dropped two of the four hostiles with few shots from their Type-64 rifle; one swordsman had over half of his upper body blasted by a M90 shotgun. However, the last one got too close and swung his sword at the closest marine, who managed to avoid a sword to the neck by bringing up her armoured forearm, the sword barely leaving a scratch on the armor. The female marine shot the surprised swordsman with a burst from her SMG.
Warthogs deployed from Pelicans supported infantry or secured critical positions, using their mobility and heavy weaponry to quickly gain ground and demolish hostile forces.
Eventually, the UNSC and JSDF soldiers were half-way in clearing out and securing the town of all hostile forces. Slave owners and such were captured and detained with the Slaves being freed and escorted to secure zones where UNSC/JSDF were handing out humanitarian aid; while special attention being given to find any prisoners taken from Earth.
"Have the freed slaves be given the food and water." Major Araki ordered as nearby troops took out crates filled with said items from landing dropships and helicopters.
The joint UNSC-JSDF forces composed of few hundred soldiers and vehicles more or less occupied all of Peron – a key hub of the slave trade within the continent of Falmart. After the return of a Japanese slave kidnapped during the Battle of Ginza, it brought out massive public outrage both in Japan and the world on the knowledge of Japanese citizens and possibly missing foreign citizens enslaved. Resulting in the JSDF/UNSC starting Operation CHAINBREAKER and the creation of JTF Rei to rescue any enslaved people from Earth.
The first target was Peron, a key site of the Falmart slave trade and one of the biggest sources of slaves for the Empire. Thanks to information gathered from freed slaves and Princess Pina after some 'convincing', the UNSC/JSDF had basic ideas of where to search for the kidnapped individuals from Earth.
The mission at Peron was going smoothly, Major Araki observed so far. No reports of KIA among his forces yet aside from some WIA from lucky arrow shots or ambushes in CQC environment within buildings. None for the UNSC, well unsurprising with their impressive body armor technology they have for their soldiers to allow them to tank hits otherwise be lethal for 21st century armor. Heck, he remembered the armor of the elite black soldiers shrugging dozens of rounds from an LMG point blank as part of a demonstration.
He looked up to see over a dozen aircraft, mostly UNSC, flying around the airspace of the town. Despite officially being a JSDF-led joint-ops the UNSC did most of the heavy lifting, being able to drop a large number of troops and materials at moment's notice in their larger aircraft.
Speaking of which, did that dropship just drop a tank?