The sun had long fallen and the crickets chirped to the pale moonlight. The night shift of perimeter guards yawned tiredly to another day of inactivity with protecting shipments that were inbound for the muster points in the Golden Path bases, most prominently Banapur.

So in their complacency they were unable to detect the agile shadows darting around within the darkness of the night. The leader guard of the electric gate went around the corner of the checkpoint to settle his business and returned to-

"Huh?-" He returned to a blood soaked post full of his guard companions, standing amidst them was a figure cladded in a black outfit and wearing a mask. The leader could not move from his position due to the frightening scene the unfolded before his very eyes, he wished it was just a nightmare and hoped to wake up soon.

The figure rushed towards him barely making a sound with its lightning footsteps and the leader's world begun to spin. His head landed sideways against the soft grass and he realized he had just been decapitated, the masked fully turned to him revealing the culprit behind his death and for the first time regretted not visiting the temple often enough.

The same figure led four other similarly cladded figures through the opened gate up the cliff as they reached the end of the plane runway. Pointing towards the directions he intended for them to go to complete their individual tasks.

The Said figure crept to the surveillance room below the air control tower to disable the guards inside as well as to take over the security footage to aid his allies.

That figure was Ajay.

Ajay was in the midst of embarking on the most ambitious plan yet in order to cripple the Golden Paths upcoming offensive on Northern Kyrat by striking the most vulnerable area in their position. That was the airport, where supplies, armored vehicles and advance weapons were brought in by airlift via Solomon and Willis's sources. Depriving the Golden Path from further amassing their forces from the villages they had been force levying by cutting the supplies needed to maintain their massive army.

Taking back the airport also had its benefits. The weapons and munitions stockpiled there would serve as the means to prolong their defenses until reinforcements from the Army could arrive in the morning to destroy the Golden Path forces sent to retake the airport.

The main consequence of the operation was that taking the airport flagged them as the highest priority target throughout the Golden Path forces in Southern Kyrat. Nearly everyone would be upon them when they realize their allies here weren't responding to their night checks.

Ajay and the hunters were the only ones sent to clear out the airport guards and staff as he only trusted them to be quick and efficient doing so. Saraswati's 3rd Company were lying in waiting in the forest below wait for them to clear the place before converging on the site to fortify it against the attack that would progress throughout. He could not afford to screw this operation up less they respond to quickly and wipe them out, the 3rd company which at a strength of a hundred men was still under equipped due to the betrayal of their main arms supplier, Solomon who was now supplying their enemy.

"Gate clear, move in Saras! We're now working on clearing the Airport and Supply depot."

*Understood. Be careful out there Badala. Saras out!*

*Maya here, in position to clear the supply depot.* Maya reported her status to Ajay just as he neutralized the guard watching the cameras in the surveillance room.

*Control tower empty.* Darshan gave a simple report. Ajay had assigned him to stay on the tower to provide over watch for the rest in the even they were unable to take down certain targets when their hands were occupied.

"I've just cleared the surveillance, you're free to thread pass the cameras now!" Ajay also informed them of his progress. He marked the positon of the guards he could see on the cameras to the team before leaving the room to join Maya, her brother and Anish by the walls closing off the Supply Depot which was an old hangar repurposed to house the airlifted supplies.

Ajay stealthily moved towards the walls where the rest were waiting.

"Took up long enough!" Maya pouted.

"I've no excuse."

"Well, at least we're down to one last objective."

-Maya was unusually understanding, what was going on?-

"What's the head count in there?"

"Ten. Two on the sniper towers on both ends of the supply depot area, the rest just went into the hangar." Anish reported the numbers dutifully.

"Alarms?"

"One by the door to the hangar, we haven't cut it yet." Bipin chipped in.

"We'll neutralize it while we take them all down. Maya, Anish. Towers!"

""On it!"" They responded quickly making their way toward the towers.

"That just leaves us, shouldn't it be better to wait for them before we take on the eight remaining inside the hangar?" Bipin again advised Ajay not to take rash aggressive actions like he always did.

"…"

Bipin was surprised Ajay was strangely cooperative to his safer suggestion. They snuck to the alarm box and cut the wire, waiting by the door of the hangar in case anyone stepped out for a smoke or something.

*Sniper 1 down*

*Sniper 2 down, heading back to your location!*

Maya and Anish crouched next to Ajay and Bipin after they returned.

"What's the plan now? We don't have a visual of them inside." Maya stated their standing problem, it wasn't easy for four to silently take down eight no matter how good they were to prevent any sound from being made like a rifle discharge for example.

Ajay thought an idea on the go.

"We'll lure them out."

"How!"

"I'll get Darshan to play a tune on the speakers to have them come out to investigate, we'll take them down one at a time! How does that sound?"

"Better than jumping them as we enter, alright!"

Ajay and the hunters took their positions behind certain scattered crates in the supply depot awaiting the distraction that Darshan was about to set.

The speakers turned on to the state propaganda channel blasting its propaganda messages on speaker. It annoyed the guards who yelled from inside to stop playing the monotonous radio channel but their demands went unanswered.

The four came out as a gang to teach the person behind that prank a lesson. -Gullible!- Ajay thought. And they were dispatched in no time at all reducing the remaining number to four, exactly the same number as them so they could take one down each.

That would have been the case if Bipin hadn't struggled with his own target and he ran off if not for Ajay clearing after him with a throwing dagger.

"S-Sorry!" He apologized, his mistake nearly cost them heavily.

"Don't sweat, just learn from this." Ajay replied without disappointment in him.

"I-…..I will!" Bipin gave him a determined look which satisfied Ajay.

Ajay didn't expect much from Bipin even if he was a Royal Guard, he wasn't Royal Guard hunter level yet but if anything Bipin made a competent secretary to carrying out tasks he set for him while they were in the palace.

"Saras, airport and supply depot clear. Bring in the supply trucks!"

*We're just entered the compound. See you there.*

"Now what?" Anish asked as their job was complete.

"Let's open the crates and see what kind of goodies they have for us!" Ajay smiled. Maya giggled at the way he said it.

They began moving around to open the crates, Bipin found some crowbars lying around and handed them around for them to use. They started to ply open the crates just as Saraswati and some soldiers she assigned to carry the munitions on board the trucks to the fortifications they were currently building at the only entrance to the airport.

Saras divided her Company into four groups, three to build three lines of defense to fall back upon and a small scout party to monitor the road ahead for patrols or the returning supply convoy which had yet to return.

She had just entered the inside of the hangar that acted as the shelter for the supplies and found them opening the crates like it was a competition and chuckled at their light heartedness despite the gravity of the mission. Then again they were the elite forces of the Royal Guards who took Ratu Gadhi so she had no say.

"Ah! Saras, nice timing! Coordinate with Bipin on the supplies to bring to the defenses!"

"Where are you going?"

"Looking for the supply manifest, need to know how much equipment is here and how much more is coming." Ajay told her as he passed them to the door.

"I'll help!" Bipin volunteered.

"You're supposed to help Saras with the supplies here! No, I'll go with him!" His sister told him off.

Saras chuckled away as Maya unhesitant followed Ajay to the control tower. Digging into the drawers of the office within the control tower looking for intel leading to supply manifests or clues to the next scheduled flight to intercept.

Ajay rummaged through the piles of papers lying on the table and stumbled upon a roster. "Found something!"

Bingo! A flight manifest containing the contents of the latest airlift of supplies. Below was a signature with the initials 'Solomon. K', it was clear that this was the real deal.

An American arms company was supplying unregistered AR-derivative assault rifles through a channel in Khyber Pass, Pakistan. Ammunition came from an ex-Yugoslavian factory. Heavy machine guns, rocket launchers and mortars from China through Bangladesh.

-Every country in the world seems to be doing their part in ensuring Kyrat continues its civil war.-

One thing caught his eye on the manifest. There was another unmarked source for an unspecified object in the registry housed in an adjacent hangar. It was just spelling out for Ajay to take a look at it.

"Ajay, I've found the flight schedule! There's a shipment coming in next afternoon!"

"Wouldn't they be surprised to find who's there to collect it!" Ajay and Maya smiled. If they could hold the Airport successfully till morning for reinforcements to come, then the shipment will be there's.

"Come on! There's something in one of the hangars we need to check out."


Solomon passed the wheel to his subordinate to drive the rest of the way to the airport while he took a short nap. They were just one more trip to transporting the last shipment before turning in for the night in a lavished hotel by Kyrati standards right next to the Shanath arena. Solomon had been to the arena once with Pagan where he introduced him to a stunningly gorgeous thing known as Noore. Like a rose she was as beautiful as she was full of thorns, he had to admit his cruel heart instantly fell in love with that ferocious beast of a woman. He wondered what surprises she could have in store in the bedroom as well.

Pagan told him the irony of her work. To save the lives of her family she was made to direct drug field production and source fresh meat for the ever gory arena. He also told him her family was long dead, De Pleur had played with them till their flesh began to rot. He had to admit, he had seen sick fucks in Hong Kong during his triad days but Paul was a notch above making those guys' work seem like playing with their food. Sabal had a plan with Paul soon but fry face wouldn't tell.

"Boss, we're nearly there!" His mercenary shook his shoulder from the driver's seat to tell him to ready his papers for entry into the Airport pass the checkpoint.

"I'm up! And next time don't touch my suit with your greasy hands again!" He nagged at his merc. The merc just rolled his eyes, he'd dealt with Solomon's egotistical attitude before but wouldn't do anything about it as he was still on his payroll and the man paid him in gold bars.

Being the lead car to the convoy of trucks used to deliver the cargo to the muster points they were the first at the powered gate which lead to the Airport.

"Papers please!" A guard came to ask for his identification. Strangely, there was twice the number of guards than there usually were. Also the men he didn't recognize, he never bothered to interact with the guards beyond showing ID but he did it every day. Eventually he remembered nearly all of the faces of the regular guards to the Airport.

An unsettled feeling welled inside of him as he reached for his sidearm slowly.

"Where's Sammy boy?" He asked as he handed his papers.

"Sammy's in the loo, I'm stepping in for him for now." The guard who received his papers replied with a smile.

"Oh? Really?..." Solomon said in a deadpan expression.

(Bang) Solomon drew his pistol in a quick draw fashion and gunned down the impostor in quick succession. His fellow guards responded with hostile force as they fired their assault rifles at the unsuspecting mercs on board the trucks behind them and on Solomon's SUV killing his driver and some others.

Solomon was luck to hide behind his dashboard which held a bulletproof jacket to protect him from the incoming fire that moment. "FUCKK!"

The mercs in the trucks began to notice the commotion in the front and alighted their vehicles with their rifles at the really.

The firing at Solomon stopped as they came to the front, by then the impostors were already out of site.

"Boss! You still alive?!" A mercenary leader called out as he came running towards Solomon's SUV.

Solomon came out of the 4WD kicking the jammed door off its hinges that were damaged by the rifle fire.

"I'm fine no thanks to you!" Solomon spat sarcastically at the leader, his mood was foul.

-All that dough and they were still worthless!- He lamented on their unreliability despite high upkeep cost.

"Seems we have a serious problem at our hands, gentlemen!" He announced to the gathered mercs.

"Somebody has taken the Airport right under our noses, that includes all the stuff that was airlifted here to this god forsaken place!"

The mercenaries expressed their uneasiness at the way things sounded from Solomon's correct analysis of the situation.

"Do we take it back then?"

"Of course, we're taking it back! You want to leave it to the Golden Path monkeys to do your job better than you could you?" He taunted. And the mercenaries bought it as they showed him expressions of disdain for the being in the same league as the Golden Path partisans.

"No sir, I didn't mean that! Shall we converge?"

"Let's Samson! Let's!" He agreed with his mercenary leader.

The mercenaries gathered their weapons and ammunition. Motivated themselves and begun their walk up the hill to where the Airport was with Solomon in tow. As he was climbing the hill with his hired guns, Solomon was having critical thoughts about this whole situation.

-This seems highly unlike what those fellows in the Royal Guard would do! Who in the world could think of such an audacious plan? Don't tell me it's the same guy who took that Stronghold overnight back then!-

Solomon was starting to have a really bad feeling about his actions at the moment, as if he was playing into somebody's hands presently.

He took out his cellphone and dialed in a recently added number. After a few rings the other side picked up.

*A call from you is never good…..* Veins bulged on Solomon's forehead.

-Still have the time to joke around, eh?!-

"It'll get worse if you don't get your goddamn Kyrati ass here at once!" Solomon shouted into the phone.

*I don't believe you have the right to talk to me that way, Mr. Khoo! We have a business arrangement, and that arrangement can be easily severed.* Even on the phone the voice was as intimidating and threatening as meeting him in person.

"Well you might want to reconsider because by sunrise it will no longer matter! Someone's taken the entire Airport! Get all available forces here NOW!" He didn't have time to accommodate Sabal's ego, there was a serious problem that could threaten his prospects in Kyrat that was ripe for the picking.

*… Go and play with their defenses first. Help is on the way!*

"Who's coming?"

*…Everyone!* The phone beeped to indicate the receiver had ended his call.

Solomon stashed away his cellphone and turned to his mercenaries who looked to him for orders.

"Don't just stand there! We have an Airport to recapture!" He stuck with his original plan.

"Sir, about this plan of action….. I think-."

"You're not paid to think! You're paid to get the job done as best as possible! You are all trained soldiers, and are you telling me you can't deal with a bunch of ragtag militia men?" After questioning his every action, he finally had had it with his Mercenaries.

"If this airport isn't taken before sunrise, you're all not gonna be paid." Solomon gave them his ultimatum to their whining. They all expressed their contempt for him but he was still their employer.

"If you do succeed in taking back the airport by sunrise, I'll double your month's wage in advance!" The ears of his mercenaries perked up at the sound of the incentive he had proposed to them and they showed vigor in their previous actions.

-Humph! Money scourging scum!- Solomon silently held disdain for his hired guards.

It didn't matter, he'd use them till they were spent! Perhaps he could save a buck or two with rate they would take their losses.


Anish was levering the crowbar against the chains to try and force them off the doors to the next door hangar. "Here, let me."

Darshan, without warning placed a plastic explosive over the chain and lock, seeing his method Anish immediately ran for cover.

"FIRING THE HOLE!" He yelled as the rest heard and took cover.

A small controlled blast smashed the chains and lock into smithereens without damaging the doors themselves.

Ajay pushed the knobs of the hangar doors and opened them with Bipin. The doors slowly creeked open due to the weight of the doors. Ajay shined a torch into the hangar to reveal its hidden contents. Inside sat an elongated armored hull, Ajay instantly realized what it was.

Sitting comfortably in the hangar was an eight-wheeled armored vehicle with a massive gun turret, the gun barrel pointed forward intimidatingly.

"I'll be damned!" Anish couldn't control his mouth.

"Looks like we hit the jackpot!" Maya commented.

"Indeed, come! Let's see if we can start it up." Ajay climbed onto the hull checking the hatches which wasn't locked.

Bipin found a file lying next to some crates near the vehicle and read from it.

"M1128 Mobile Gun System….. there are parts on this manifest that are highlighted with black I can't make out."

"That's because it's not meant to be traced back to the unit it originally belonged to. I recall seeing this on the discovery channel back in the states. It's a fire support platform that's air transportable, no one else but the US Army has it presently in its inventory so it's pretty clear who supplied the Golden Path with this." Ajay stated his hypothesis.

"Willis…." Maya guessed the correct channel which it passed through.

"How deep is the CIA in this?!" Bipin shared his nervousness.

"Deep enough they want to overthrow Pagan!" Ajay stated as he begun applying his mechanical knowledge to the figuring out how to start this vehicle from the driving compartment.

"Can it be turned on?" Maya asked curiously.

"It's a matter of when, twenty minutes maybe!"

"We're gonna use this?"

"Why not! Anish, go look for the 105mm shells for that cannon." Ajay already gave his instructions to look for the ammunition to load up, Anish immediately scurried around the crates excitedly searching for the shells to the cannon and machine gun.

"What about us?" Bipin was just about to ask when Saras commed in.

*Badala, we have first contact. The scouts encountered the returning convoy. We'll be wa- CONTACT FRONT! (Firefight erupting)* A soldier spotted the enemy and shouted causing rifle fire to be sent on both ends. They could hear on the radio an engagement happening where Saras was in the trenches of the first defense line.

"Saras! Hold them off, I'm sending Maya and Darshan to you. The rest of us will be there shortly!" Ajay responded.

*…. What about the rest?* The intensity of the firefight had increased as she comms back the second time.

"We're working on a surprise, e.t.a ten minutes!"

*Alright! We'll hold… just hurry up! The arms weren't fully distributed when we had encountered them!- Watch those flanks!* Saras acknowledged his assistance and went back into leading her men in the trenches they dug.

They could hear the echo of gunfire and explosions in the distance now.

"Get going you two, we'll catch up." Ajay told her.

"Ok!" She and Darshan sped off into the night to help Saraswati.

Ajay went back to inspecting the transmission and the driving compartment controls. He found a manual shoved between the driver's seat and took a browser through it. When he figured out what he needed to do he passed the manual to Bipin.

"What do I do?" Bipin was now left on standby. Ajay pointed to the turret cockpit with the massive autoloader and the gunner's seat.

"Figure out how to use that."


Maya took the ATV with Darshan down to the defense line where it had broken out into a fierce stalemate.

"What's the situation!" She asked Saras after approaching her from behind the trenches.

"We're locked in skirmish! These fellas aren't Golden Path, they're some sort of mercenary force! My men are sustaining losses on this line! What's Badala doing?!"

"He's bringing in a game changer! We just need to minimize the causalities for now!" Maya assured her.

"Easy for you to say! They've been suppressing us with heavy fire as they advance, at any rate they'll be upon the trenches!"

The situation was not as they anticipated. Early in the planning Ajay and Saraswati decided to stick with a three layered defense to hold back the enemy all night, losing the first one right after taking the airport wasn't acceptable. They were expecting Golden Path fighters, but it appeared that fate wasn't so kind. They were foreign mercenaries, likely professional army trained and they combat hardened making it difficult for the Royal Army 3rd Company to repel them.

They had sustained a loss of five men so far only because of their superior terrain position and high cover, but the mercenaries were taking less despite their poor position. That was testament to their prowess in fighting.

"We need to get rid of them before the Golden Path main force arrive, buy me time to think up something!"

"Whatever! Do it quick!" Saras shouted as she helped a trooper to carry out a machine gun they held in reserve to lay down a suppressing barrage at the converging mercs.

Maya studied the enemies' movement from the protection of the trench while Darshan assisted Saras in applying pressure against the attackers.

Yuma had personally tutored her in the art of warfare among the other things. Despite her mentor's wishes she take up a staff position by her side, Maya chose the Royal Guard hunters whom Yuma was a patron to. Because she believed by being in the frontlines would she be able to rid her mentor of all the problems that would pop up. But her transfer to the hunters wasn't just about ideals, she was physically more qualified to join that even most of the other hunters. Scoring top in shooting proficiency, hand to hand combat and tactics.

But what made her stand out amongst her peers was her ingenuity at strategy in the field.

She looked into the forest to scan the surrounding in which the mercenaries were fighting in. Tall dense trees that provided one man cover for each of them, they had to climb an incline to get to the trenches and the slope was covered with fallen leaves.

-Got it!-

"Saras!" Upon hearing her name called out she immediately ducked down into the trench and looked to Maya.

"Yes, dear?"

"How much explosives and incendiary bombs do you have?"

Saras consulted a lieutenant she left in charge of distributing the logistics and captured munitions to the defense lines.

"Twelve satchel charges and three incendiary grenades! Why?"

"We're gonna box them in with those trees and light them up!" Basic 101, no matter how strong he was, man was always afraid of fire.

"Will it work?"

"The ground is literally packed with tinder, we'll use the charges to blast the trees in a certain direction to prevent them from getting pass us!"

"Alright, we'll go with that!"

At the bottom of the slope, within the safety of the densely packed trees, Solomon observed the skirmish with a pair of binoculars. By his side was the mercenary leader observing his men and directing their directions they were going in carefully.

Peering through the pair of binoculars he spotted two females. One was a high ranking officer from the looks of it with distinct long curly auburn hair. The other one was a brunette with short wavy hair. Both these women were fine specimens, such gorgeous things that he least expected in this kind of hellhole they call a country and taking this line of work at that.

He was under the impression women weren't allowed to join the Royal Army.

-So what's with these bombshells!-

Solomon was having a bad feeling again at the pit of his stomach. These two 'special cases' aren't low in their rank that was for sure. They were in fact possibly part of an elite group where gender weren't major concerns which meant this operation was really high in the Army chain of command. If they were just a decoy, then where was the main force?

-They haven't showed all their cards yet. I'd better split!-

Solomon slung his binoculars and prepared to walk down to his SUV to flee but kept a seemingly calm façade in the presence of his mercenaries.

"Keep up the assault! I'm going down to find out why the Golden Path dipshits haven't arrived yet!"

The mercenary leader nodded and turned his attention back to the fighting. After crafting an excuse, he moved quietly down the hill slope to his parked vehicle to make a run for Banapur.

(Boom) (Boom) (Boom) Satchel charges were blowing the trees and not aimed for the mercenaries.

"What the hell's happening?!" The leader asked through his radio as he observed the bombings.

*Those Royal Army boys are chucking the charges away from us! Bad aim perhaps!* A forward comms specialist within the fight informed him.

"I don't like the look of this….."

No sooner did he think that when three orange fireballs ignited in and behind where the mercenaries were. The mercenaries covered their eyes thinking they were flashbangs or flares of some kind.

Taking this opportunity, Saras ordered a suppressing barrage of all soldiers in the trench upon the mercenaries who had stopped firing at them. The mercenaries ducked in cover to recover their eyes and reload their weapons, they failed to notice the brush fire that were growing with and around them.

Until the fires had reached waist height did the mercenaries stop their attention on the trench firing soldiers and look to the ever intensifying fire. They scrambled to escape but found burnt trees that had previously been blown from the stumps had blocked their exit.

Realizing that the tables had been turned they struggled to focus on providing suppressing fire for them to move but also think on how to get out of the maze of fallen trees.

Moving from the cover of the tree thick trunks cost them their only means of protection against the hail of lead that was coming from the trenches up ahead. Many of the mercenaries were gun down, while others attempted to cross the blazing fallen trunks and burnt themselves in the process. Seeing their comrades fall in numbers to these two actions the will to continue fighting in this hopeless situation was now gone. The mercenary leader was not one to sit and watch from the back and rushed up the hill to join his men.

The sight of him gave them courage. He yelled out that the only way out of the forest fire was forwards and so the remaining mercenaries fought like their very lives depended on it.

"Shit!" Maya realized what she had done.

"Like cornered rats, right?" Saras wasn't helping by giving the appropriate analogy.

"Ma'am! We're on to the last box of ammo!" A lieutenant reported their current ammunition reserve that was placed in the trench. Like she had reported to Ajay, the distribution of munitions was not complete as they only managed to place limited ammo in the first line by the time the mercenaries came knocking.

Saras curled her lips. The situation was far worse than before, at this rate they would be upon them in seconds.

What should she do, abandon the line for the second defensive position? But then they're only face more dire straits when the Golden Path guerillas arrived in full force.

(Bang) (Boom) A loud percussion sound echoed from behind and a fireball appeared in the tree line near where the mercenaries were causing them to stumble due to the nature of the explosion filled with flechettes that shredded some trees and men who were in the closest proximity. The mercenaries stared up in shock and awe.

Saras turned her head to her men who shrugged their shoulders.

-But who-?-

Her head spun 180 and her sights landed on a vehicle on the road with a smoking barrel.


"Y-You missed!" Anish nagged.

"How am I to blame?! This is my first time!" Bipin argued from the gunner's seat at Anish sitting next to him.

"Here! Hand over the joystick!" He shoved Bipin aside to have a go.

"No!- Go away! Get your own!" But Bipin resisted his push.

Ajay sighed as the two were like children fighting over a new and exciting toy despite being grown-ass men. He pressed the pedal to move the armored vehicle forward.

"Stop bitching and fire on them!" He ordered from his driver's seat.

"Ah!- Right!" Bipin lined the crosshairs on his LED screen onto the mass of the unfriendly that appeared as white shadows in a black white background from the vehicles night-vision cameras.

"Away!" He called out as he depressed the trigger on the gunner's joystick. The vehicle rocked back and forth from the cannons massive recoil. A white explosion engulfed the mass hostile targets dead centre.

"Conserve ammo! Use the machine gun!" Knowing that the enemy already knew the firepower at their disposal, Ajay told Bipin to use the vehicles co-axial weapon which was just as effective against the exposed infantry. And he did just that, still mumbling from not getting a turn Anish opened the hatch to have access to the heavy machine gun to have a whack at them as well.

Streams of tracer fire impacted the trees in the mercenaries position and hit some of the exposed mercenaries turning them into red puffs of smoke. "Get sommmeee!" Anish gets overly excited as usual.

Ajay switched seats to the commander's seat to watch through the digital camera what course the mercenaries would take now.

He noticed a distinct action from a single mercenary amongst the rest. "Ceasefire! Anish! Get off the turret!" He informed them both and kicked Anish in the leg for being slow to his orders.

"What? What happened?" Anish returned to the inside of the turret.

"Both of you sit tight with hands on the triggers, don't fire unless I say so! I'm going out!" He went out of the rear hatch.

"What are you doing, Ajay?"

"Accepting a surrender!" He said before moving off after closing the hatch.

Ajay walked over the trench line where Saras, Maya and Darshan followed closely behind. The mercenary leader came out of cover unarmed with his hands in the air.

They were just metres from the trench where they met.

"Is it just you surrendering or the lot?" Ajay asked because he was the only one showing non-hostility by coming out.

"Drop the gun fellas!" The leader ordered. To which the mercenaries did reluctantly.

"So what do I call you?"

"Whatever your pretty face wants it to be." He said smart-ass about his mask.

"Badala would be mine, Mr. potato head!" The mercenary leader chuckled slightly at his timely joke.

"Samson's the name."

"Samson, where's your employer?"

"The snake ran off just now... must've seen this coming and used us to escape. Fucking Solomon!" He cursed.

"Solomon's your employer?"

"Aye! And he 'was' my employer!"

The others with Ajay were astounded, they just inches away from one of the most wanted traitors and he slipped from their fingers just like that. Maya physically punched a tree trunk showing her frustration.

"To my knowledge, mercenaries don't have basic rights like armies….." Ajay gave him a preview to his desperate odds.

"Whatever, we did our job our employer gave us! These men are my responsibility. The music I'll face but these men don't deserve to die just yet!" He said gritting his teeth.

"Don't deserve to die?! You kill for money you-!" Maya was about to pounce on Samson when Ajay grabbed her collar and pulled her back.

"And you kill for country! What difference does that make with us?!" He questioned Maya's ideals.

"You-.."

"Shut up!" Ajay roared with such power it silenced both of them. Maya backed off though reluctant.

"Saras, what's the losses?"

"Nineteen." She promptly replied.

"And you, Samson. What's your current strength and the losses?" Ajay asked Samson.

"….. twenty-five men present, fifteen lost."

"Right! Samson, you have a choice to save some of your men. But… you have to decide who." Samson looked at Ajay in shock at what he demanded.

"You get to decide out of the twenty-one who gets to live and who dies. Then we talk concerning the treatment regarding you and your men."

The mercenaries caught whiff of what Ajay's clear voice said and shuddered where they stood. He was asking Samson to kill four of their comrades to match the loss Saraswati's 3rd company took.

Even Samson felt light headed when hearing the conditions. But he didn't falter for long. Steeling his resolve, he turned around and drew his pistol gunning down four of his comrades. The mercenaries and Royal army soldiers were surprised by his display of brutal efficiency.

He said a silent prayer for them. Then turned his attention back to Ajay.

Ajay grinned at him fearlessly and asked...

"Tell me Samson, how would you and your twenty-one like to enter a long-term contract with me?"