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Presidia, Capital of United Cascadia, North America, Planet Earth

August 23rd, AC 432, 16:00

A vast city estimated to house a population of millions, but now looks very dead, not a single people on the streets, and in the sky, replacing the birds, are patrolling fighters, helicopters and aerial battleships, as the camera is shooting among the high-rises and is panning and turning.

The camera continues shooting the city, this time from eastern rural area and from high altitude. Suddenly an ACG-01 Chimera makes its entry, followed by dozens of lesser models like SP-34R, VX-23, F/S-15, etc. All of them bear the emblem of Cascadian Independence Force, and are advancing like mass-murderers thirsty for a campus shooting spree.

"All callsigns, commence the offensive. We are the descendants of those who would not be ruled. Show them what that means." Headquarter of Cascadian Independence Force hails through radio and gets a loud cheering as response.

"I suggest a better transcript: Last time we were expunged from this city as dissenters, and before this sunset, we will ride into the streets as conquerors." Inside the cockpit of the Chimera, which has an additional emblem of a white, butterfly-resembling crown, the pilot, also the squadron leader of a three-fighter team "Hitman", known only by his callsign "Monarch", says to himself.

"To all mercenaries, do not count days, do not count miles, count only the number of Feds you've killed! Go!" Monarch's boss, leader of Sicario Mercenary Corps, Arnold Frenken, also known as "Kaiser" and "Assassin 1", issues a standalone hailing to his subordinates.

"In that case your majesty, I'm the undisputed champion." Monarch speaks in mind again: "And it should be 'Confeds' instead of 'Feds'. Pacific Federation is merely nominal, it's actually 'Confederation of Pacific Rim' because it's a coalition of countries, not a nation consisted by states or provinces. Its war-performance would be much better if being a true federation, luckily it isn't."

【Background Music: Presidia】

【Extracted from Video Game: Project Wingman】

The forces of defenders and offenders, or "oppressors" and "liberators" start their final clash. "Diplomat, Comic, you stay with the main group, should they need support, I'll go forward to give the Federation a knock-knock." Monarch hails the two wingmen in his team, Hitman 2, Peter Kennedy, and Hitman 3, Evelyn London. He always gives them the maximum in-mission freedom, for he's not the leader type but more comfortable to be a lone wolf.

"Enemy aerial battleships are emitting strong jamming fields, bring them down to ensure EM-superiority before competing for air-superiority." Sicario's AWACS, Dominic Zaitsev, a.k.a. for the callsign "Galaxy", suggests.

"Once again, watch the king blowing the night away and saving the day." Monarch speeds up to attack the nearest flying giants, a 205-Class Aerial Battleship, Variant A, known for being rigged with a battery of railguns. Immediately the hero is greeted by a barrage of railgun slugs, and he dodges with ease — despite the terrorizing name, these so-called "railguns" are quite useless since the slugs they fire travel barely at Mach 2, 3 at maximum, if you get hit, blame yourself for being too slow-responsive.

Dominic Zaitsev: "It's heavily armed and armored, tough to beat, take advantages of your speed and maneuverability and go for the engines!"

"We've been colleagues for so long and you still don't understand how I fight, do you?" Monarch dives directly to the hapless aerial battleship with maximum acceleration and dodges all incoming firepower, railguns and CIWS alike, then smashes its cockpit, or its bridge with a UGBL (Unguided Bomb - Large): "When a falcon hunts a swan, it always goes for the head."

"Impressive, most impressive." The long-lost voice of Captain Kelleher, leader of Sicario's special operations group "Ronin", registers itself in the communication network.

Arnold Frenken: "How's the mission?"

"Consider it done. Federation entrenched themselves deeply in the city. Every building is rigged with guns, every parking lot is set up with artilleries, and every garage is converted into a barracks. We tagged as many as we can, and rounded up as many resistance personnel as we can, once you breach into the urban zone, we'll launch an assault from hidden staging points to meat-bread them."

"Great job. And after all of these are over, our boys and girls would like some thrilling stories of yours."

"You got it sir, but now I gotta go dark for a while, federal business."

"Yeah, may the Dust Mother smile upon on you. Ouch, just when did I become this accustomed to their superstition?" Arnold Frenken chuckles.

Meanwhile Monarch continues to bring down federal aerial battleships with the aforementioned approach and achieves a success rate of 100%. Guess someone never watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the imposing Executor-Class Star Dreadnought is defeated by an A-Wing Starfighter kamikazing itself into its bridge. Why these flying kaijus always have their bridges/cockpits so exposed/protruded? Can't they just relocate such weakpoints in their geometrical centers? In fact, his "going for the head" tactic of dropping aerial battleships directly comes from the very movie. That's right, this super-ace has a huge collection of "Cultural Heritages of Pre-Calamity Human Civilizations", consisted by literature, music, comics, anime, video games, films, documentaries…all forms of mental consumable articles produced centuries ago, before the crust of the planet shattered. A much better way of killing leisure time than bar-fighting, gambling and employing prostitutes.

Dominic Zaitsev: "ALCON, Federation air fleet has been deemed no factor. Now sweep their fighters to claim the sky over Presidia."

"Gimme a few minutes, Galaxy." The crowned ace of Sicario, also the crowning combatant of Cascadian side already retasked himself, gunning down federal fighters — literally, with the two large-caliber guns integrated into his fuselage and four additional CGP (Canister Gun Pod). Ever since BVR became the dictating rule of aerial battles, dogfighting were being less and less valued by the pilots, why bother getting close and personal if you can just form a fireball in your hands and toss it from afar? However everything is dialectical, since dogfighting is a dying art, then these pilots are virtually defenseless when a certain foe suddenly charges to them and attacks them in a dangerously short distance. Put it in a figurative way, what can Harry Potter do if being engaged by a chainsaw-wielding Lord Voldemort in merely one meter? Fighters affiliated to the Federation are falling from sky with their bodies crippled, even heads (cockpits) punctured, and those who temporally survive the shooting spree are fleeing and right fleeing into the bird-catching net of Cascadian regulars.

"We have the sky, friendly air fleet moving in." Aerial battleships Cascadian Independence Force begins their entry to take over the airspace above the city, with escort fighters. Meanwhile Feds and Cascadians continue fighting against each other across the forest-covered eastern rural area, it seems the ground battle is much tougher than anticipated. From the perspective of risk management, the operation of reclaiming Presidia shouldn't be set in motion so soon, not until the morale of occupying federal forces drops sufficiently by the prolonged naval blockade led by Eminent Domain, flagship of Cascadian Navy. There must be a hidden agenda in those top Cascadian minds.

Dominic Zaitsev: "Fed ships stranded in the port are shelling our troops, someone take care of them immediately!" The blockade do takes its toll on the Federation, for all their available vessels presented in the theater are out of fuel, but even no longer movable, a warship is still a warship, possessing the firepower enough to "flattening a mountain"; aircraft carriers are mixed among them, serving as airports. It's strange that Presidia, as a major metropolis with millions of residents, doesn't have any sites for airliners to land or take off, even there are so many unexploited lands lying around.

Traditionally, aircraft carriers are the priority-one targets to be sunk, but since there are few federal fighters still active and allied ground units are being bombarded by naval armaments, Monarch goes for cruisers and destroyers instead. Naturally, the most preferred option to take out ships is ASM (Anti-Ship Missile), hypersonic, semi-intelligent, super-destructive ordnance specifically primed to do the job. However personally, Monarch tends to strip these expensive assets' combat capabilities and have them seized afterwards, so he switches to MLAG (Multi-Lock Anti-Ground Missile) and manually set them to only target the guns and missile launchers installed on the ships. Once all the onboard weaponry are all but decimated, mere vessels won't pose any threats, and if his clients still want them destroyed, then so be it.

As the naval elements of the Federation is being taken out of action, the situation on the ground is tipping to the favor of Cascadia. Advance detachments of ground troops of Cascadian Independence Force have reached the vicinity of the urban areas of Presidia. Almost immediately they're met by stiff resistance from almost every direction. Federal garrisons are really determined to fight to a bitter end, they fire anything in their possession from anywhere they consider fitting for firepower nests, and everyone with sufficient mobility is on constant move after taking a few shots, largely raising the difficulty of rooting them out, especially those with sniper rifles or anti-vehicle armaments. Cascadians counter with grenades and flamethrowers, purging enemies window by window, room by room, but the efficiency is painfully low.

Feds even planted IED throughout the city, taking Cascadians by surprise. Every step allies make is costly, even with the support from Ronin's men, plus friendly fighters and aerial battleships. In minutes several platoons of infantries and armored vehicles are lost.

Peter Kennedy: "They want to go down fighting. Only a Fed deals in absolutes."

Evelyn London: "If we ask them to surrender before shooting them, and offer some fair terms, they may think otherwise. But you know, top brasses, regardless which side, are always jerks. Especially that Stardust, if Dust Mother really exists, please recycle him as fertilizer in the last phase of the war."

"Throughout the progress of the war, I found something interesting." Having disabled the last Fed ship's weaponry, Monarch relocates himself to rendezvous with Hitman 2 and Hitman 3, also renders his discovery: "That is, the Federation somehow cares the well-being of civilians more than Cascadia does, trying to minimizing neutral casualties as best they can, at least before going wacky and igniting half of the planet with cordium-tipped missiles. I'd like to say in the gauging of evilness, Feds are the lesser one."

"Are…are you saying we're fighting for a wrong course all the way?" Peter Kennedy is dumbfounded.

"Not really. We're mercenaries, we take money from the highest bidders and fight for their designs, no questions asked, that's called 'pricing correctness'." Says Monarch.

"Neither am I completely agree with you, nor am I disagree." Evelyn London shrugs: "Last time I checked, all leaders of this Cascadian Independence Force are from interest groups backed by local politicians and tycoons, none from the classes of peasants nor workers, and Cascadian population is quite divided on this independence movement, half want to stay in the Federation, these loyalists even held a pro-Federation demonstration in the very beginning of the war, before we were hired, and were suppressed by the separatists who happened to have more guns with bigger calibers, several deaths involved."

Peter Kennedy: "Ouch, suddenly my morale drops."

Monarch: "I always have a high morale, as long as the pay is handsome."

Evelyn London: "That makes two of us. This world is absurd as it is, giving up fancy ideals is good for health, both physically and psychologically, the sooner the better."

"…guess you're right, I'd like to find a place of tranquility and drown myself in liquors, after getting my money." Peter Kennedy sounds depressed: "Feel free to join me."

"I won't suggest doing that, too much alcohol will degenerate your chromosomes, if you still what some Peter Kennedy Jr. running around later."

"Ouch."

"Be careful where you're aiming! There're still people down there! People with families and properties!" As the trio pounding federal targets pinning Cascadians down in the streets of Presidia, via vertical dive-bombing with UGBS-3 (Unguided Bomb, Small, Triple Volley) or via constant MLAG barrages, Joshua Griffiths, callsign "Stardust", the Cascadian Independence Force's liaison to mercenaries, is on the horn, with dysphoria.

"What a hypocrite." Monarch can't help to laugh, and deliberately inflicts more damage to the city: "If you really don't want people getting killed, then don't start this war. Say, which one is under you or your father's name? I'll guarantee it's completely razed."

【Background Music Stops】

Dominic Zaitsev: "Remaining federal troops are falling back, the last of their garrisons are boxed in the core regions of Presidia, marking targets."

Arnold Frenken: "They're doomed one way or another, to all Sicario units, you can slack off a little, let the regulars to mop the floor."

"Aye, your majesty." Monarch loosens up his fingers on weps' triggers. Should let Cascadians to do the honor, and if they can't handle that, then what's the point of this whole independence thing? Through the course of the war, he sees Cascadian Independence Force getting its butt handled to itself by Feds in almost every turn, and every time it becomes like that, Cascadians cry for Sicario to cover up the mess, as if a stock scene in those superhero comics of the old days: People running for their lives when the giant monster strikes and calling for the protagonist to save their sorry-asses.

"Does this order extend to my men as well?" Kelleher asks: "They're still quite energic, I don't want to rain on their parade, you know."

"Do what you see fit, I'd say killing Feds is a good R&R." Arnold Frenken chuckles.

"Yes sir."

"Setting up positions!" "Trapped like rats! I hate rats!" Hyped allies can be heard in radio, then suddenly it goes chaotic.

"Why we stop advancing?"

"Beats me. The units in the front just stopped."

"Too little, too late, damn it!"

"All units, cease engagement immediately!"

"What? A Balrog bursts out from the ground amidst the Goblins?" Monarch jokes, he always holds a playful attitude, since he has experienced too many wars and claimed too many lives, subsequently generated a view that wars are unavoidable and humankind is stupid, so better make a fortune from them and make fun of them.

Dominic Zaitsev: "…an emergency message from HQ, you're not gonna like it, but I'm relaying regardlessly."

"This is Independence Force HQ, representing the free and civil government of Cascadia. All active units, stand down. I repeat, all units currently engaged, cease fighting immediately…the parties, participating in a neutral conference held in the land of the Republic of Albion, hosted by the United Kerneuropa Alliance, with a view to ending the war and restoring peace in relation to Cascadia on the basis of respect to the self-actualization of the Cascadian people, have agreed on the following provisions and undertake due respect and to implement them following a ceasefire has been declared. All units, stand down."

Peter Kennedy: "Does that mean we win the war and Cascadia is free from now on? That's a major detail!"

Evelyn London: "From the looks of it, I'd say we've won and Cascadia is no longer a part of Federation."

"I concur, it's unlikely for the Federation to further invest anything into this disastrous business, given the beatings it suffered, and likewise, Cascadia is exhausted too." Monarch concludes. Meanwhile both warring sides are still struggling to get the latest orders through their hierarchies, and frankly, neither of the sides are doing a good job, for exchanges of firepower still occur in multiple locations, some combatants even explicitly refuse to comply and is being suppressed by their comrades. "Your coordination stinks as ever. I still remember someone with the name 'Joshua Griffiths' said 'In truth, we didn't think we'd need you mercenaries at all' before begging us to assist his men fleeing Presidia when Feds kicking their sorry-asses like a boss. Now I can say 'In truth, Cascadia doesn't deserve this victory at all, if it weren't Sicario, your little rebellion would end like Luke Skywalker's confrontation against Darth Vader in Cloud City'." He says to himself.

Finally, both Cascadian Independence Force and Federation begin to regroup and to implement the ceasefire accordingly, the vanquished is being escorted out of the theatre from certain passageways, disarmed and being surveilled by the victors.

"Is that it? The end of the war?" While many allies are cheering "We did it! We did it! I can't believe it! We resisted the Federation", Peter Kennedy is not so happy: "Why I just feel hollowed, where's the sentiment of closure?"

"Because you feel like deceived. They really should be more careful in justifying their independence in the first place, and tell us they're negotiating with enemies a little earlier." Evelyn London says: "But why they should? We're just mercenaries, hired hands. Do you really think the master would tell his dogs why to have retrieved the stick he just threw? They even held the negotiation secret to the regulars!"

Monarch: "I prefer cats. Cats are tinier, cuter, smell better too. In hindsight, anyone hearing 'We intended to keep the blockade going for at least a month to drain the Federation defenders, but circumstances have forced our hand' in the briefing should've been aware of some ongoing under-the-table transactions. This entire operation is launched prematurely for grabbing more favorable terms in the backdoor squabbling."

Arnold Frenken: "If it can lower your spirits, I'm planning to raise the prices of our services when checking out. Cascadians must pay extra for what they've got us into."

"Fine, make sure it comes in advance and tax-free, and as gold bars, no banknotes and no cheques." Peter Kennedy seems persuaded. A mercenary is supposed act like a mercenary, only money matters, why he should care about which side wins, or how many people have been killed?

"Just wonder will it be a Tokyo Trial or something, and how many war criminals will slip away like that Rosa Cossette D'Elise, an idiot, a coward, a hypocrite, a war criminal and a fascist pig of the likes of Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, say, are we war criminals too?" Evelyn London muses.

"Maybe. But do you really think anyone dares to put a charge on us? It's unwise to accuse someone who's armed and dangerous, the prosecution will be killed on sight, presumably in some gruesome manners." Arnold Frenken points out an objective truth, the same reason why not a single lawyer ever indicts Palpatine, who controls millions of trigger-happy soldiers and thousands of space-faring capital ships.

"There's nothing further here for a warrior. We drive bargains. Old men's work. Young men makes wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men. Courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace. And the vices of the peace are the vices of old men. Mistrust and caution. It must be so." Monarch quotes from Lawrence of Arabia, one of his favorites in his collection: "I sincerely wish Cascadia and Federation will play nice to each other in future, after wasting so many human resources and material resources, if any of them still possess the minimum capabilities of reasoning, then they should pour money to the reconstruction of the war-torn Pacific Rim instead of furthering its destruction."

Dominic Zaitsev is coordinating the exfiltration of federal troops alongside other AWACS, suddenly his sensors go crazy as they're saturated by strange signals: "Alert! Multiple hypersonic inbounds! Cruise missile type!"

Monarch: "Guess someone is not happy about the peace accord, I can make a long list of them."

"Whoever's doing this cancel the attack immediately! The war's over, any further resistance is futile!" Joshua Griffiths shouts angrily, seems quite weary of the war, a war started by his faction, and Monarch always hopes he goes down as a poetic justice like Evelyn London has wished.

"W…what the hell?! I've never seen so many heavies clumped together in my life!" Dominic Zaitsev is panicked: "And thermal signatures are off the charts!"

Monarch: "Ouch! That'd better not be what I think it is…" He immediately pulls up as fast as he can, aiming to the above of the clouds: "I'm going high, very high, and I suggest you do the same."

Already too late, as dozens of warheads, dragging streamline-like contrails, come down from the sky like meteorites, then everything goes white, followed by sweeping electromagnetic pulses.