If somebody had told him that his day was about to get a hell of a lot worse, he would have laughed. Pastella was a peaceful city with beautiful views and nothing worth destroying in any conventional military sense.

Andrew Kolinsky and some workmates were at a riverside cafe for the afternoon. They discussed work, life and the traffic on the way to work that morning. Andrew listened but rarely chipped in. He was more interested in the scenery and the flow of people around him. Approaching forty years of age, Andrew looked a lot younger than he actually was. Short and clean light brown hair, perfectly shaven face and bright blue eyes made him quite the attraction.

'What about you, Andrew? Any luck with that lady from the office?' Close friend Conelly Erwin distracted Andrew from his little sightseeing adventure. Andrew frowned.

'I talk to one person for a minute and all of a sudden everybody's got their jaws gaping.' Andrew answered. A week ago Andrew had to converse with one of the pretty ladies in his department about something. He didn't even like the girl, for christ's sake!

'This is a significant event, man. How long has it been since you've last gone on a date, or gotten laid?' Another person from the group, a big guy, Alexander Russ, commented. Andrew cringed. Russ was technically correct, it had been a while on both occasions.

'I admit that you have a point,' Andrew conceded. 'But in all honesty I'm better off without.'

Andrew had been about to add to his sentence when the sound of screeching wheels cut him off. All five people in the group turned in the direction of the noise. On one of the streets that led to the cafe, a hatchback had come roaring around a corner gunning it towards the cafe.

'What the fuck?' Conelly said. Andrew tried to get an eye on the occupants. No joy, tinted windows, which was odd since that kind of thing was only ever seen on police and military vehicles in Yuktobania. Andrew reached into the front of his cargo pants. The hatchback reached the roundabout directly in front of the cafe and whipped around. The driver slowed down on the turn. The back door of the hatchback opened up. Andrew saw four occupants. Two of them had rifles.

'Get down!' Andrew roared, standing up and extracting what was in his pants; a Glock 19 compact sidearm. The two gunners in the rear of the hatchback lined up their targets and started firing. Automatic gunfire ripped through in the direction of the cafe. A table seating three was ripped apart by the shots, as were the occupants surrounding it. Andrew started firing at the armed occupants. The automatic fire lanced through the cafe proper, hitting people inside, and into a cluster of tables before Andrew landed a shot on the attackers. One of the gunners was struck in the jaw, knocking him down. The other shooter noticed quickly and lined up on Andrew. Andrew lined up a shot on the second shooter as rounds came his way. A spray of lead came his way, which Andrew would have caught if Russ hadn't pushed Andrew out of the way and onto the concrete below. Russ took eight bullets and fell on top of Andrew. The latter grunted and groaned, winded by the impact. Despite that, the armed old man pulled his pistol arm out from underneath Russ and lined up on the vehicle. He fired two shots before the hatchback sped off and made it outside of his effective range. Faintly, Andrew heard a scream that wasn't from any of the wounded civilians. The second shooter had been hit.

'Fuck me.' Andrew muttered. He felt something warm seeping through his clothes. It was blood, but it wasn't his, Russ had caught a bullet to the head, an event that sprayed blood and brain matter over Andrew's jacket. Andrew slipped out from under the dead body and staggered to his feet. The hostile hatchback was long gone, the noise of a roaring engine replaced by the screams of injured civilians. Directly in front of him, Conelly was groaning. He had caught a few bullets. Andrew dropped the magazine in his pistol and replaced it with a backup. He then reached for his phone, went into his contacts and pressed on one.

Not a long distance away, Lieutenant Alucard Norr was enjoying a fresh cup of coffee when his phone started ringing. Groaning, Norr dropped his coffee on his desk and withdrew his phone. ERT Chief Kolinsky.

'Fuck are you calling me for?' Norr asked himself. He took the call. 'Lieutenant Norr.'

'Norr, get me the station chief and an ERT team to the river cafe. There's an emergency.' Kolinsky spoke a mile a minute, but Norr took the information. He could hear screaming on the other end of the phone.

'Perez isn't in. The fuck is going on out there?' Norr asked, frantically scrambling for a pen and a notepad.

'Then get me Rylanor and that ERT team. There's been a driveby shooting here.' Kolinsky said urgently. Norr muttered an expletive.

''Rah, sir. Standby.' Norr muted his phone and reached for the landline on his desk. Two key presses and Norr was waiting for the Emergency Response Team sergeant to pick up downstairs. The line connected.

'Sergeant Rias here, what's up?' The sergeant picked up.

'Rias, gear up and get your team to the river bank. I've got reports coming in of an armed attack on the cafe side of the river.' Norr ordered.

'Of course there was. We'll be there in five mikes.' Rias reported and cut the call. Norr put the landline back and picked up his mobile.

'Noble Team is outbound, five mikes.' Norr reported to his superior.

'Cheers Norr. I'll be in touch.' Kolinsky thanked the lieutenant and ended the call. Norr sat down, rubbed his face and sighed. It was going to be a busy day.

'That was exciting.' At the wheel of the silver hatchback, Christopher Winter admitted his feelings about the driveby he and his team had just committed to. 'Tony, how are they looking?'

In the back of the hatchback, Tony was providing aid to the two wounded and armed men. 'Dead.'

'Both of them?' Chris asked. He was too focused on the road to turn back and see for himself.

'Yup.' Tony replied deadpan.

'For the cause.' Chris said, also deadpan. He turned onto the highway that would lead them out of the city.

'For the cause.' Tony said with no emotion, pushing the two lifeless bodies out of the back of the hatchback and slamming shut the rear door. A few seconds later, Tony appeared in the side of Chris's peripheral vision, riding shotgun. 'That was a fucking close one. Reckon they'll be after us?'

'We'll be back into Verusa long before they find us.' Chris replied. Tony strapped in and prepared for the ride back to home turf.

Sirens approached the cafe. Andrew saw a white van with tinted windows approaching the cafe from the same way that the hatchback had. Luckily, he knew this vehicle had friendly shooters in it. The van rolled up and the side and back doors opened up to reveal armed tactical response operators. All tricked out in OD green uniforms with heavily modified rifles, the first person to approach Andrew was the team's sergeant, Rias.

'Looks like you need an ambulance more than a fuckin' response team, sir.' Rias deferred to Andrew, an AK-15 carbine in his hands. 'What happened here?'

'Silver hatchback rolled through and opened fire on us. I think I got two of the shooters.' Andrew answered. 'That kind of attack? Gotta be Sunset.'

Rias whistled and observed the scene. There was debris, blood and bodies littering the area. Rias pressed his radio PTT. 'Station, this is Noble Actual, need a medical response unit at the Tarley Cafe ASAP.'

'Cheers.' Andrew thanked the sergeant.

'You hit?' Rias asked, gesturing towards the blood that had soaked through Andrew's shirt. Andrew glanced down.

'Not mine. Take control of the scene sergeant, I have to make another call.' Andrew released control of the site to the man who was more equipped to deal with the situation.

'Roger that. Noble, secure the area!' Rias barked at his team. Andrew walked out, holstering his Glock and extracting his phone again. He was calling somebody different this time.

'Jake, it's Andrew. Sunset struck again.

Meanwhile, south of Pastella, Yuktobania

King's Point City, Verusa

January 27th, 2019

Three hours after the attack on Pastella

'An armed attack on the Tarley Cafe has left fourteen innocents dead-'

'Local police forces have so far been unable to find the belligerents of this attack-'

'Yuktobanian and Verusan officials have both denied that covert Verusan forces were responsible for this event-'

'While they have not yet claimed responsibility, it is suspected that the Sunset Coalition were the people behind the attack. We will update you with new information as soon as it comes in.'

'Fuuuuck me.' Sitting on the couch in the living room of his house, Benjamin Rios switched through different news channels on the TV. All of them were reporting on some kind of terror attack that had occurred in their neighbouring country, Yuktobania.

'What's up?' A female called out from a room behind him. To Ben's left, the aforementioned lady appeared.

'Terrorist attack in Yuktobania. A couple of channels think the Sunset Coalition is behind it.' Ben reported. Kirra Liwell scoffed in disappointment.

'Who else would it be?' She said. The blonde, short-haired lady came to the lounge and sat down heavily beside Ben. The two listened to the news for a minute or two, waiting for any additional information. There wasn't really anything except for information that was being recycled. Kirra reached for the TV remote and turned it off. Ben didn't argue and decided to stand up to get something to drink.

'Think that work will call us back in?' Ben asked. Twenty-five years old, Benjamin Rios was a man of average height and build, the top of his head covered with short jet black hair. His roommate and close friend, Kirra Liwell, was roughly the same age, a bit shorter than Ben at five-foot-seven with blonde hair that she often kept in a ponytail accompanied by bright green eyes. Both were pilots, fast jet pilots for the Verusan Navy.

'I hope not, we only just got off a deployment last Friday.' Kirra replied. Ben was checking his phone at the nearby coffee table when it vibrated in his hand. A message. The sender was listed as -NOREPLY- PACFLTCOM. Ben sighed and opened the message.

LT BENJAMIN RIOS,

SITUATION CRITICAL. REPORT TO YOUR MUSTER AT KINGS POINT NAVAL BASE ASAP. BRING YOUR KITBAG AND BE PREPARED FOR A SHORT-NOTICE DEPLOYMENT.

VERUSAN NAVY PACIFIC FLEET COMMAND

'Shouldn't have said anything.' Ben said to Kirra. The latter looked back at him. Ben chucked her his phone. Kirra quickly read the message.

'Oh for god's sake. Alright, I'll go get changed.' She said, disappointed.

'Same. We'll take my car.' Ben told her. The two retreated to their bedrooms to get into proper uniform. Ben quickly took off his casual clothes and slipped into his working uniform, a tan one-piece flight suit that was lying on his bed. Making sure that all of his patches were on, Ben grabbed the green bag sitting at the foot of his bed and left the room. Kirra was already at the front door waiting.

'Took you long enough.' She lightly teased Ben. The latter replied with the middle finger. Ben grabbed his car keys from the table and went to leave the house. The two went out onto the street, where two cars were parked, a maroon SUV and a white pickup truck. Ben pressed the remote unlock button on his keypad and the pickup truck's doors unlocked. Throwing his bag into the back section, Ben stepped into the driver's seat. Once Kirra had dumped her bergen and strapped in, Ben started the car and started driving in the direction of their base.